Around The Campfire
by jimmy143
Summary: The Rugrats return to camp Everwood after 4 years, times have changed but the mystery surrounding the creepy camp has not, a chill has returned and swept over the camp, can the Rugrats put on the greatest stage show this side of the lake? will Dil find Bigfoot before the tourist? and will they answer the long-lost mystery of the settlers? all while making the best short film ever?
1. Chapter 1 Bro, Are We There Yet?

Hey, not sure what to call myself here cause I don't know if real names are allowed so I will go with Charlie. I've done a few fanfictions over the years but I have mostly been a reader. I took a step back from reading them swell recently due to a lot of stuff going on but I wanted to get back to writing. I had previously been working on a series called "Brotherhood Of The Mountain" which was a Rugrats All Grown Up fan fiction that I started...a long...long...long time ago. It is pretty awful and I would recommend no one reading it or any of my others, I wrote them when I was a lot younger and had absolutely no idea how to either spell (Which I am only slightly better at now...not making any promises) or punctuate. I am also only slightly better at that now. I am also writing on a MacBook and I am not used to its keyboard yet. So...umm...sorry about. My previous stories have always been rather extreme departures from the Rugrats All Grown Up formula but I wanted to tell a proper story that could kinda fit into the series (Kinda) smoothly. I am also very busy with school so the updating of this story will be a bit random but I am sure we will work out a bit of a schedule. This is mostly just a chance to have some fun but also test my writing skills a bit. I hope you enjoy.

To give you some age ideas -

Tommy - 16

Chuckie - 17

Dil - 15

Phil - 16

Lil - 16

Kimi - 16

This story, for the most part, will be child-friendly, apart from some occasional dark themes and or serious moments I will try and keep it true to the show, but they are older and so I image the show to also be directed at an older audience. Here we go!

Around The Campfire

By a random fan who probably should find something better to do!

Chapter 1: Bro, Are We There Yet?

"Never gonna give you up! Never gonna let you down!"

Phil's voice spilled out of the open school bus windows into the deep and mostly quiet forest, well, quiet till the bus passed by. The increasingly audible complaints from the fellow passengers did little to hinder Phil's excessive need to recite the lyrics of every song on his phone at a glass-shattering pitch. Squirrels darted for safety as his voice echoed from tree to tree.

The bus flew down the dirt tracks, sending clouds of dust in every direction. Despite the huge amounts of passing dust clouds all the windows were open, in hope of catching a breeze to relieve the passengers of the outrageous heat.

"PHIL! SHUT IT!" Lil yelled over her brother, trying and failing to snatch away the phone. He danced from side to side of his seat, avoiding Lil's and Kimi's hands. Nearly everyone else had come to accept the obnoxious sound by now, apart from Lil and Kimi, who's constant snatches at the phone and yells of protest were doing nothing but spurring him on to try and be even louder. Tommy had been sitting with Chuckie for most of the ride, but now that Phil's antics were getting rather tiresome and the heat was doing little to help with everyone's mood he decided to move further away from the noise. Chuckie was immersed in the latest issue of "Armadillo Dave". Tommy moved a few seats down from the racket to sit next to his brother Dil near the front. He was rocking back and forth in his seat, staring intently from his book to the window.

"There's no way I'm gonna see big foot with that guy making all that noise, he's gonna scare him off!" Dil said with a sunken expression.

His book was titled "The Man In The Forest - by S.D Buckle" the subtitle below read "The field guide for the Bigfoot enthusiast"

"Dil it's no big d, you'll get plenty of time to look for him at camp"

"Oh don't talk to me about that camp"

"You loved camp Everwood the last time we came here"

"Yeah but that was before they started selling out and letting tourists flood through this place, before you know it, WHOOSH! Bigfoot will have left. Gone and found somewhere else to live, and I'll never get a chance to see him again"

"Have you seen this place man? It deserted. No tourists come here. There all over on the other side of the forest, at camp...um."

"Camp Woodstock"

"That's it! You don't have anything to worry about, and despite my best attempts to explain to you bigfoot is fake..."

"He's real, I'm gonna prove it, I've got a camera and everything this time, all I need to do is..."

Tommy realized he had said the wrong thing, Dil spent the next 10 minutes explaining every part of his plan, his backup plan and his backup, backup plan. Tommy zoned out of his brother's long explanation of how he would lour bigfoot to a preferable location. Tommy took to fiddling with his camera, resentment for it flooded his system. He hadn't been able to make a single film over the summer, now his family, friends and a bunch of nobodies were all trapped in an old, crusty camp. He had missed his opportunity. The script had fallen through and he had lost his extra cast. Just shows you can't trust anyone except your friends to stick with you. They had stood by his film and given him hours of their time. And they had nothing to show for it. Tommy gave his camera a gentle squeeze. He had contemplated trying to shoot some stuff at the campsite but now that it wasn't haunted anymore, it was just a dump. All the excitement had faded. It was just a damp, old campsite, run by a mad playwright.

"You look down" Chuckie came and sat down on the seat across from Tommy, rolling up his comic and stuffing it into his pocket. Dil hadn't noticed Tommy and zoned out till now.

"You weren't listening? Did I just explain dark matter for no reason at all?" He jumped onto his seat "Please! Anyone! Did anyone hear me explain dark matter? I need to know someone heard my genius!"

"Hey" Phil came and sat down on the seat behind Tommy, Kimi appeared to have confiscated his headphones.

"I'm fine, just frustrated, you know," Tommy said, still staring at his camera

"Sorry about your film man, but we can do it next holidays." Chuckie tried to lighten the mood

"Yeah, I mean. You know, the world probably wasn't ready for vampires in space anyway" Phil tried to hold back his laughter.

"It's not that, it's just. You all helped me out so much with it, and we came out with nothing" Tommy looked up, with a look like he was pleading them to tell him otherwise. But they stayed quiet.

"Hey it's not such a big deal, it was just a chance for us all to spend time together" Kimi and Lil walked up the lane between the seats to them. Phil looked up, hopeful they would give him back his headphones, but from the way Lil was glaring at him it was obvious he wasn't getting them back anytime soon.

"Yeah, and hey, you can like...whats it called? To film yourself?" Chuckie questioned.

"Vlog" Dil murmured, now with his face squished against the window.

"I'm not gonna vlog myself, but...I don't know. Maybe I will film a bit of the camp" Tommy said, with a burst of positivity flowing through him he switched on his camera.

The wheels of the bus skidded and made an awful hissing sound.

"Alright, everybody! Welcome back to CAMP EVERWOOD!" Betty exclaimed, jumping from her seat with a grin from ear to ear.

"Come on everybody!" Didi and Stu headed out of the bus, followed by Kira, Charlotte and Howard. Tommy grabbed his backpack, flicked out the screen of his camera and pushed the record button. The heat was like running into a brick wall, knocking the air from all of their lungs. One by one. Sweat instantly covering them. Gone was the chill in the air from their last visit. It was hot. Dil walked out of the bus then instantly turned around to walk back in but was blocked by Phil.

"Please! NO! Let me go back! I can't live like this!" He yelled

"You suffer with the rest of us!" Phil shouted back.

"You kids place nice, come on! We can grab the luggage when it cools off!" Better called from around the bus.

Everyone walked...well...it was more of a run into the camp.

"We need to get inside, like now!" Kimi said through gritted teeth.

"Hopefully we don't have to listen to...oh no" Tommy skidded to a stop

"Welcome to camp Everwood! I'm Chas, camp supervisor, musical director, and playwright, Ellie here runs the bait, tackle and donut shop! Its so wonderful to have you all back, my fans have been clambering for another show like the one we all did together, so lets knock their socks off!" Chas sounded extremely excited, he was standing on the porch of a wood cabin, similar to the ones they would be staying in except for the large sign that read "Head Office" and the large map of the camp to the right of the door, tracing every walk, bathroom and campsite in the area. Underneath the map was a pile of smaller maps that were handed out. Next to Chas stood Ellie, still clutching a wooden log like she had on their first visit. She looked even more manic and insane than before. Her eyes darted from camper to camper.

"When is this guy gonna shut up, I'm dying out here" Phil muttered to Tommy. The sun was beating down on them, in the open campsite, they were all clustered there was no shade cast by the trees they could gather.

"My fans have been begging for another show like we did all them years ago, so let's knock their socks off! Tomorrow is a freeway so ya'll can get settled in, Wednesday we gonna get stuck into things! If you're looking for any activities, Ellie will be handing out pamphlets in the donut shop, you can find details about swimming holes, rock climbing, and hiking. Also, we gonna have ourselves a fun time tomorrow night, can't say too much but look forward to it, alright. BYE Y'ALL!" He waved goodbye as the crowd of people took their maps and headed towards their designated cabins, Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, and Dil were sharing one again, in cabin 2 -1. Kimi and Lil had one to themselves till Angelica and Suzi arrived the next day. They were in cabin 2-2 The parents had their own cabins a few campsites away, and due to the...lack...of interest in camp Everwood the campsite they were staying in (Campsite 2B, with cabins 2-1, 2-2, 2-3 & 2-4) was empty except for them, a few of the other cabins in 3C and 5D had people in them swell but the campgrounds were mostly empty.

"I told you man, Its gonna work! I'm gonna hook up these 4 webcams to my laptop and position them on all 4 sides of the cabin, so from my bed, I can watch out for bigfoot! And with the press of a button, I can record him in all his big-footed glory!" Dil whipped out a webcam from his bag, swinging it around his head by the cord, Lil ducked to avoid being hit by it.

"Dil come on, I don't want your cameras all over the campsite" Lil groaned, the prospect of being in constant view of Dil's prying eyes was not an appealing one.

"Can we just get inside before I keel over!" Kimi roared as she sped ahead of them when the cabins came into view.

Tommy adjusted his camera lens as the others ran off ahead of him.

"Come on Tommy!" Chuckie called from up ahead

"Be there in a second" he called back.

He had been caught off guard by something appearing, out of the blue on his camera, it must have been a beard, or just a lens flare from the sun. But he swore...he had seen something. He considered for a moment big foot, and how happy it would make Dil if he had captured Big foot on tape already. He checked the recording, nothing. Not a flash of light, or anything. He started walking again, a thought crossed his mind, just for a split second before common sense buried it deep in his mind, but that thought was enough to send shivers down his spine. "What if there was something in the woods? Something watching...me"


	2. Chapter 2 Do You Remember Him?

Hope you enjoyed the previous chapter, I am planning this to be a shorter story, about 10 chapters with varying length. Hope you enjoy this chapter :) - Charlie

Chapter 2: Do You Remember Him?

Tommy, Phil, Chuckie and Dil's cabin was on the left-hand side of the campsite, Kimi's and Lil's was the middle cabin and the one on the right was currently empty. A fire pit sat in the middle with the cabins surrounding it, the ground was a mixture of dirt and rock that over the years had been trampled into a perfectly flat area. Surrounding trees gave them privacy from other campsite and campers.

The cabins were small wooden structures, wood paneling with a small deck out front, slightly raised off the ground so a few steps were necessary to get to the green door. Windows were on either side of the door. the windows were old, cracked and dirty. Summed up the whole place in fact. with a tin roof and peeling paint the cabins were less than appealing.

"Well I vote for sleeping on the ground," Phil said, looking around to make sure Chas wasn't prowling around.

"I could say its got character but I think we all know I'd be lying" Kimi murmured.

They split off, boys going one way, girls going another. They clambered up the steps which gave ominous sounds of splintering wood with each step. The door creaked open, revealing two bunk beds, two closets, and a window. The inside was barely better than the outside, the walls were unpainted plywood, the roof looked suspiciously like asbestos and the carpet was so worn down and stained you could almost see the wood flooring beneath. A lot can change over 4 years.

"Optimism can only last so long" Chuckie peered around the room.

"Don't worry guys! I know it seems bad but...holy crap look at that bed!" Dil shrieked "It looks like death and depression" he continued. The mattress looked older than them, covered in stains, patches, and rips.

"It smells like sweat, sunscreen and vomit" Tommy held back a wretch.

"We can't sleep here!" Phil pleaded.

Tommy gave the mattress a little poke with his shoe, a cloud of dust puffed out of it.

With much complaining, they had to settle for opening the windows to air out the room and placing as many towels and layers of sheets and blankets as they could to hide the fact they were sleeping on the mattresses of hell. The day crept on. The sun beating down on the cabin. They unpacked their carry on bags, most of their luggage was still on the bus so they settled for plugging in chargers and rummaging through backpacks. They soon discovered there were no bars of connection on their phones. At this discovery they had to drag Phil back into the cabin, kicking and screaming.

"Take me back! Take me back to civilization!" He pleaded as they dragged him by his legs back into the small cabin.

Chuckie found a large is bedside table that he positioned between the beds, They distracted themselves from the disgusting task of cleaning the cabin by talking about what card games they could play on the table, after a few hours of cleaning the place resembled a liveable place again, it turned out the carpet was just a rug so they were able to remove it and put it outside the cabin to air out, they got some water from the pipe outside and washed the floor and the bed frames. Dil discovered the empty Cabin had next to new mattresses that they took no time in "Borrowing" / "Switching" them. They drew the curtains aside and the place looked pretty damn good.

"Can't do much to improve the outside I guess but it looks great!" Tommy said, taking a step back to admire their hard work.

"Don't worry, Lil's got a plan to make the outside look better" Phil grinned as he swept the leaves off the deck. They had found some chairs under the deck as well so it was looking a lot better. after completing all the work they could do on their cabin they went to help out the girls with theirs, they had mostly finished swell by this stage.

The sunset, at about 6 pm the air had started to cool and their campsite was bathed in a deep yellow light. More creamy and lazy then the harsh, white yellow of the day. Tommy drew the short straw and had to help Dil install his webcams around the cabin. Phil and Chuckie helped Kimi and Lil gather sticks and branches for the fire.

"Not sure what we are going to do without logs to keep the fire going, they don't expect us to start cutting down trees do they?" Kimi dropped a pile of twigs into the fire pit.

"Well if I remember right" Chuckie unfolds the map from his pocket and examines it "Yep, there is a log stack up near the head office where we can grab logs and extra firewood." He folded up the map again.

"Hey, you two!" He waved to get Tommy and Dil's attention. "We're gonna go get some wood from the head office! Be back in a minute" he shouted out to them.

They waved back before returning to taping the 3rd webcam to the right-hand side of the cabin, Dil strung the wire, occasionally using tape to keep it close to the wall. All the way to the closest window.

Tommy filmed Dil as he taped the last webcam to the front of the cabin.

"And done! Let's see Bigfoot attempt to avoid my watchful eye!" Dil jumped down off the chair they had found behind the empty cabin.

Tommy stopped the recording and took the camera away from his eye. "You know, I stopped trying to understand you a long time ago," Tommy said.

"Good" Dil grinned

"But it surprises me how much you are into Bigfoot and stuff like that, like him especially, he's all you've talked about so far this trip" Tommy wasn't really sure what he was talking about or why but Dil's reaction kinda confused him. He half grinned, but his eyes told a different story, it looked like he was making a tough decision. He finale spoke. "True I would love to catch a glimpse of Bigfoot on tape but that's not why I'm doing this, and...I'm talking about him so much cause I don't want to freak anyone out but...what I'm really looking for is him" he rummaged his hand in his back pocket and handed Tommy a picture, Tommy recognised it immediately, the one they had found years before of the settlers who had gone missing. They had discovered it in an old journal left behind by the settlers, a picture of all of them before they went missing and became the stuff of legend. And the one in the middle "Bean?" Tommy blurted "Yeah, it's just, like. We knew so little about him, and if given the chance I would love to see him again…I know its weird but…he was my friend and I would just like to…you know….do you remember him?"

"Yeah I remember him, how could I not. It's not every day you meet a ghost...why would you ask?"

"I don't know, it's just, sometimes I feel like the only one who remembers some stuff. And I wonder, was it all in my head or, was it all real. Don't tell the others, I don't want to turn this into a ghost hunt or anything, I just want to know...if he's out there. Okay?"

"Okay"

The thundering of footsteps signaled the return of Chuckie, Kimi, Phil and Lil, each carrying buckets filled with logs.

"This should be enough to keep us going a while" Phil dropped the contents of his bucket onto of the twigs, shattering them into even smaller pieces.

"Phil….why?" Chuckie groaned, putting down his buckets, he walked up to the fire pit to inspect the damage.

Tommy shut the cabin door as Dil plugged all the USBs into his laptop. He jumped over the steps in fear of them finale falling apart.

Kimi was sitting on a log that had rolled out of the fire pit, Chuckie was regathering twigs and Lil was fighting Phil off. "Give me back my headphones Lillian!"

"No Philip! You get them back when I say so!"

Their scuffle continued over near the empty cabin, Tommy gestured at Chuckie who looked up from his pile of sticks.

"Yeah?"

"Just wondering, does the map say where we switch on the power? The light switches don't work"

"Oh, I'll check" He unfolds the map again, studies it then says,"It says it should be up near the head office, I guess someone forgot to switch on our power. Do you want a hand or…"

"Nah I'll run up and switch it on, I'll grab some of the luggage while I'm up there"

"Okay, the switch number is….it should just be the campsite number, so 2B"

"K"

Tommy grabbed his camera and started up the dirt track to the main office. He waved goodbye to Chuckie and Kimi, Lil and Phil were still fighting and Dil was fiddling with the position of one of his webcams.

The light had faded, even more, the shadows were deeper and stretched further, the little light spilling through the tree coverage was more purple than red. It did little to light the way ahead and the uneven and rocky ground was a sharp contrast to the level and smooth ground of the campsite made the trip even longer. The sun drooped lower and lower. Tommy reached a set of wooden signs, one pointing towards the main office, the other leading to the lake. He leaned against a tree to catch his breath, From where he was Tommy could see all the way along to path that leads down at a dangerous angle, he could see over the trees to the lake, and the glimmer of campfires from the other campgrounds were dotted along the other shoreline. A breeze rippled through the trees, ruffling Tommy's hair and sending a chill through his denim jacket, goose bumps spread across his arms. He pulled his jacket tighter against his skin, amazed at how quickly the weather could change from blisteringly hot to a cool night, it was only then that he saw it, far in the distance, the first bit of moonlight bouncing off its smooth face, was pioneer rock. It looked like little more than a pebble from here but Tommy could see it, clear as day. Seeing it again did little to dispel his uneasy feelings. They had proven it wasn't magic, there was no mystery, the settlers had just fallen into a mine shaft. Nothing special, so why did it seem so ominous…like it was looking at him. His mind drifted to Bean again, they had never solved that. His eyes…the tape…"Maybe Bean is over there" Tommy thought to himself, he shook his head, trying to calm himself. "You're starting to sound like Dil," Tommy told himself as he stomped up the last of the path.

The main site was mostly dark, no one had lit any fires so the only light illuminating the area was a small gas lamp on the porch of the main cabin. Tommy pulled his phone from his pocket, he was about to turn on the flashlight but saw it only had 12% charge left.

"Might cut out on the way back" he stowed it back in his pocket and instead reached into his back pocket, pulling out a set of keys; the house key, the key to his treehouse door, a spare key for his dads car, his trusty screwdriver and a small flashlight, he wandered around the cabin, there was about a 2 foot gap between the cabin and the donut shop that he slipped into. Weary of snakes or spiders and reached the camp power box, he unscrewed the metal case protecting the switches from the weather and vandals. He traced the switches "1D, 2A, aha! 2B" he flicked the switch on. "That should do it". He had no way of knowing if it had worked so he would have to walk back and check. He put the metal case back on and had just finished screwing it back on when a shape moved across the gap between the two buildings. He was standing at the end of the gap and whatever had moved past had walked straight past the two buildings without noticing him or his flashlight. Tommy wasn't sure why but he felt…uncomfortable in this situation, no not uncomfortable, unsafe. Without thinking he switched off his light and silently made his way to the opening and stuck his head out. The air was even colder now, it had easily dropped a few degrees, to the point that a small cloud of mist was building up as he breathed. An awful feeling of being watched ran through him, like icy water. He looked back down the gap between the two buildings…..nothing. he looked around the camp, and he saw it. A shape, could have been a man or a woman but it was too dark to tell, as it moved around he lost faith in the idea that it was either a man or a woman, it moved so…strangely. A thought crossed his mind. "Bigfoot!" He reached for his camera but before he could turn it on the shape was gone, he stowed the camera away, he wanted to be relieved now that the shape was gone but that awful chill and watching sensation hadn't left him. In fact, he felt like the only thing protecting him, that shape had just left. The sound of rushing footsteps behind Tommy startled him, the air grew even colder but before he could look around "What are you doing over there Tommy?" Betty, Howard, Tommy's parents and a few other people were walking up the track to the bus to get their bags now that it had cooled off. He stared at her for a moment, then remembering the sounds he had heard a split second before he spun around but the path behind him was empty.

"You alright Tommy boy?" She asked with a worried expression.

"Yeah I'm fine, the power was off in our cabins so I came to turn it on"

"Oh okay, we just walked past your site and the lights are all on now"

Tommy was relieved to see them and also relieved to know he wouldn't have to walk back up here in case the lights hadn't turned on, but he was still on edge.

He helped gather up all the bags and carry them down to the cabins, with each step he took it felt like the temperature went up by a degree, by the time he reached 2B it was uncomfortable hot again, The lights were all on and the fire was blazing, Kimi had set out enough logs for everyone to sit on, Chuckie was setting up extra lights around the site and it appeared that Lil had brought a whole suitcase filled with Christmas lights, she had plastered her's and Kimi's cabin with them and strung them through the trees, most likely due to Phil's pleads she was only doing a "Modest" amount of lights on their cabin, modest as in only slightly less obnoxious as her own cabin. A huge amount of bugs circled each fairy light and especially the gas lantern Chuckie was igniting. The whole place looked warm, welcoming and well lit. It did a lot to relieve the chill that still hung around inside Tommy after his encounter with the shape up at the main office but the feeling was not yet completely gone.

everyone gathered around and grabbed their bags from Tommy and later Stu as well when he came along with the second load of bags. Phil dumped the contents of his onto his bed, Tommy did little better and Chuckie kept everything folded and started placing stuff in draws, Dil was still glued to his webcams and didn't unpack.

"You know, I don't know why mom packs so much" Phil said as he looked at the massive pile "I'm probably gonna wear what I am wearing now for the first week, probably will change my shirt for the second week and might try different shorts for the third, that's 3 things. I've got every single item of clothing imaginable here! Why do I need like 4 pares of socks! I'm only gonna wear the one pare!" He rummaged through the pile of clothes.

"Please tell me your joking" Chuckie wasn't overly keen on the idea of being in the vicinity of Phil wearing more or less the same clothes for 3 weeks.

"Do you know me at all dude? Of course I'm not joking!"

"I bet, you're not gonna be able to stay in the same clothes for 3 weeks" Tommy said, sitting down on his bed.

"I've gone months wearing the same clothes!"

"Yeah but that's been on your own terms, in your own house, this is the forest. In 1 million degree heat. I bet you won't manage it" Tommy grinned at him.

"Oh, you bet, do you? Is this like a real bet, like money bet or just a bet kinda bet?"

"Nah money is boring, also I know you don't have any money to give me, I'll bet, if you wear the same clothes for the next 3 weeks, I will…"

"Dress up as Armadillo Dave, that dude from Chuckie's comics and walk around school singing his theme song!" Phil looked amazed by his own genius. "Alright, BUT, if you fail, you will do my laundry for a month…dressed as a maid"

There was a brief silence as Phil thought about the odds and the consequences.

"Photos allowed?" He inquired

"Yep" Tommy grinned at him

"Deal" he held out his hand.

"Deal" Tommy shook it.

"Hey if you guys are done unpacking everyone is being called to the main hall down near the lake for a meeting! Hurry up!" Kimi called over to them. They put on their shoes, Phil dragged Dil away from his webcams "Just let me hit record real quick!" He shouted!

They left their site and followed the gang of campers down to the hall. Tommy was glad they were heading anywhere other than the main office, he was rather sick of that place.


	3. Chapter 3 Back End Of The Horse!

Alright so 3 chapters in now, really loving it so far, hope you are as well. Its just been great to get back into writing after a long time and who knows when I'm done with this I might write some other stories as well, if you are enjoying this story let me know what you think and anything you would like me to change / improve on, its just a hobby but if I'm gonna do it I want it to be the best it can be so let me know. - Charlie

Chapter 3: Backend Of The Horse!

Compared to the warm and comfortable glow of their campsite, with its Christmas lights and roaring fire. The harsh white light of the hall was rather unwelcome. It felt very clinical. It was obvious this was the newest building in the camp, probably only a year or two old. It was large, cold and bland. Chas jumped up onto a chair and addressed the crowd. "Good evening everybody, hope ya'll settling in nice and easy. Sorry to drag all you kind fake down here just before dinner time but I felt I needed to address a few things, firstly we have limited staff working at camp Everwood this season, so the Donut shop will only be open Monday through to Wednesday so keep that in mind. Also the stage show we will be putting on this time is called "The wayward campers" its of my own creation of course, I don't want to spoil anything for ya'll but casting will be held bright and early tomorrow so after breakfast come on over to the stage across from the head office and grab your scripts. I would also just like to say that due to recent...unfriendly behaviour from neighbouring camps some of the bush walks are no longer available, walk 12 and 8 are sadly no longer available till we get someone along to clear out the fallen trees, and as always the track leading to pioneer rock is off limits, ground around there is liable to swallow ya whole so keep off it" he chuckled to himself.

Tommy, Phil, Lil, Chuckie, Kimi, and Dil all shared sheepish looks before being drawn back to the front.

"Okay ya'll, have a good night, if you need me just holla! Bye bye now!" He waved as they all crammed out of the hall and back up the rocky track.

A few hours after dinner Tommy, Chuckie, Phil, Lil, and Kimi all sat around the campfire. Dil had retired to watch his webcam. Tommy starred as Chuckie's watch hit 11:37 pm, it was illuminated by the dancing fire.

"And when the sun rose that morning, all the police could find was a bloody jacket" Lil looked around at everyone, hoping for a reaction.

"Tommy, your turn" Phil muffled through a mouth full of marshmallows.

"Huh?"

"To tell a story" Lil sounded frustrated that no one was scared by her story.

Tommy shifted in his seat, he looked up from the fire.

"You want a scary one?" He grinned at them.

"The scariest you can do" Kimi rested her chin on her hand and stared at him intently.

"Okay so its uhhh" He took a minute to think of something, it suddenly came to him. "Its called The Shadow, These teenagers came to stay at a camp far away from their homes, far away from civilization. They set up their tents just as the sun set, they couldn't get a fire going because of nearly constant rain. So they sat in their tent, cold, wet and tired. Two of them decided to play a prank on the others, they leave the tent. They walk to the bathrooms, one produces a firecracker from his pocket, the other a lighter. They walk back to the tent place the firecracker behind the tent and light it, it explodes and ignites the tent, no one tries to get out. They run up and unzip it as flames engulf the tent, its empty. They look around but can't see anyone, all that surrounds them is an impenetrable wall of trees."

"This is boring" Phil interrupted, he finished toasting another marshmallow and popped it into his mouth.

"Don't interrupt Phil" Chuckie said checking his watch.

"It's alright, I didn't know where to go with it anyway" Tommy shrugged.

"You lot need to get better at scary stories," Phil said, spraying food as he talked.

"Says Mr. "I don't wanna tell a story"Let's see you try" Lil gave him a dark look.

"I'm saving mine, you can't waist all your good stories on day 1."

The ghost stories died out, they mostly talked about the renovations the java lava was having for the next few hours, Chuckie finale convinced them to got to bed. They parted ways after extinguishing the fire and turning off the gas lights and Christmas lights. Tommy was last on the porch, he looked out across their campsite, the cold feeling of someone watching him washed over him again.

"Come on Tommy, chill" he thought to himself, he switched off the porch light and closed the fly screen door.

"Seen anything Dil?" Chuckie inquired.

"Nothing, I guess he had an early night" Dil said in a monotone voice.

They clambered into bed, Dil on the top bunk with Tommy underneath him, Chuckie in the other top bunk and Phil beneath him. Tommy expertly tossed his sneaker at the light switch, plunging the room into darkness. There was brief silence.

"Hope this play is good, I'm really starting to miss Molly so anything would be good to keep me busy" Phil tossed in his bed to face Tommy. "I didn't know you guys were back together" Tommy also turned around to face him.

"Well we never really broke up, we just kept our distance for a bit so Lil wouldn't get upset. But man, I really miss her."

"I guess its only for a couple of weeks, you'll see her again soon"

"You heard from Rachel recently" Phil was looking at him intently, Rachel's name had peaked Chuckie's interest, he turned over as well and looked down on the conversation going on. Tommy wasn't too keen on the idea of talking about this kind of stuff with his little brother in the room but judging from Dil's silence he was either asleep or glued to his webcams still.

"No, I don't think she hates me or anything. But I mean, most of our relationship was built on me lying to her so...I haven't heard from her, no"

"That's too bad man, you been seeing anyone else?" Phil had caught onto Tommy's discomfort about Dil but his curiosity had gotten the better of him.

"No, I have been so caught up with my film over the holidays I haven't even seen anyone expect you guys and my parents" Tommy felt flat, looking at his now empty love life made him feel unequal to Phil, of all people to feel unequal with, Phil was easily the worst.

"What about you C man? I know your listening in hehe"

"Not sure if you can count it as listening in when I'm stuck in a room with you" he said defensively 'I haven't been seeing anyone recently, after our RV trip I kinda got put off the whole dating thing for a good year, by then most of the people in my year had paired up so I am in a sticky situation at the moment. But there is this girl, her names Sara. We've been paired up in a few projects and I kinda like her. She probably has a boyfriend though" he continued, sounding as flat as Tommy.

"Hey, Hey! I'm the only taken guy in this cabin, not to brag or anything but it does feel good to one-up you two for once in my life"

"Trust me, I never expected YOU of all people to one-up me" Tommy said, trying to not take offense at Phil's words.

"Ouch man! That's cold" Phil chuckled to himself for a few minutes before they all started to drift off. First Chuckie, then Phil. And finally, Tommy drifted off to sleep.

He was sitting on the roof of his house, watching the sun go down, listening to Spike bark at the neighbors dog. Tommy started to feel lonely up on the roof. He wanted company, someone to sit with. He saw Rachel walk across the street, he jumped to his feet and waved at her.

"Rachel! Hey! Rachel!" He called out to her. She looked at him for a split second before turning away again, he tried to chase after her but she was fading away, he chased her into a white void, before he knew it she was gone. He fell to his knees and caught his breath. "RACHEL!" He pleaded, he begged her to come back, to not leave him alone with Phil and his judgmental looks.

"Bro" a voice whispered, waking him up.

Dil was hanging from his bunk bed, holding onto his mattress with his arms he was swinging back and forth in excitement.

"Bro! I want you to bring your camera tomorrow okay?"

"Dil? What are you doing..."

"Just bring it alright, its important"

Before Tommy could completely comprehend his words Dil swung himself back onto his bed. Now that Tommy was awake again all he could do was think about the dream that was quickly fading from his mind. He felt angry at himself, at Phil and at Rachel. After a while, he just felt angry at himself for being angry at Phil and especially Rachel. "He was just playing around, its not his fault your too fragile about your relationship with Rachel, and it's not her fault either," he told himself over and over.

The next morning couldn't come soon enough, Tommy had struggled to fall back asleep after Dil's interruption. The walk up the rocky track straight after breakfast wasn't on anyone's top 10 list of things they wanted to do at that moment in time.

When everyone gathered around the main office, Tommy got a chance to get a good look at everyone present for the performance camping trip, There was Tommy's mom and dad, Chuckie's Parents, Chas and Kira, Phil and Lil's parents, Howard and Betty. Suzi's parents and Angelica's parents were also present, Suzi and Angelica still hadn't arrived, they were driving up later than everyone else because Angelica had her last shift at the retail shop she was basic running at this stage, Suzi had offered to drive her down, They were due down in about an hour. Apart from the usual people, there were a few new faces, people Tommy recognized from school. It appears like a few people must have bailed after the first night, there was a noticeable difference in the number of people who gathered at the hall last night compared to now, Chas's speech addressed this change in the group. "Morning everyone, hope ya'll had a nice breakfast, as you can see a few of our fellow campers have sadly left...very suddenly due to...uh...unforeseen circumstances."

Phil leaned close to Tommy "wonder how much worse their cabins were to ours to make them quite so soon" he whispered.

"But we will carry on, Some folks may need to act extra roles but it should be fine, the scripts are all here" Chas gestured to a table, stacked to breaking point with scripts.

"I know ya'll can't wait to find out what my latest masterpiece is, my uncle's cousin's friend who walks dogs for a casting director sadly will not be joining us this time but fear no! A dear friend of my brother who knows a guy who knows a film producer will be attending our show!" A murmur of interest came from the crowd.

"Now my latest piece we will be performing is titled "The wayward campers" I adapted another urban legend into my screenplay so I hope it really strikes a cord with the locals. Everyone please, take a script, have a read through and choose a character you would prefer to play, auditions will be held in 1 hour!" Chas jumped down off the stool he had been using to draw focus to himself and started gesturing people towards the table of scripts.

Chuckie, Lil and Phil stood in the line to grab scripts for everything while the others looked for seats,. They went down into the rows of seats infant of the stage and threw down some jackets and phones to claim a few seats. Tommy and Kimi hopped onto the stage and sat on the lip of the stage with their legs dangling off.

The line was growing smaller, most people headed back to their campsites, others went into the donut shop, Dil ran off to get some drinks and donuts for everyone, leaving Tommy and Kimi alone. Tommy wasn't exactly sure when the last time they had been alone was. Things had never been awkward after halloween a few years back but it hadn't really improved their relationship, and considering Tommy and Chuckie's relationship had been on thin ice after that whole thing, neither of them had ever talked about the TP+KF event. Tommy wasn't sure if opening his mouth was a good idea but Kimi beat him to it.

"You alright?" She looked at him intently.

"Um. Yeah" he tried to grin back but it looked like he was just showing her his teeth.

"You really think thats gonna work on me?" She looked kinda bugged that he had tried to brush off her question.

Tommy was slightly taken aback but it was true, Kimi was one of his oldest friends and even with their past...events. he couldn't just brush her off like that and expect her to not notice.

"I...uhhh. I've just been in a bit of a...I don't know." He blathered.

"What happened?" She barely blinked, she was so focused on him.

"It's just Phil, we talked last night and...It just made me think about Rachel and how royally I screwed that all up. i just never expected to be playing catch up with Phil of all people" Tommy felt like he had finale gotten a massive weight off his chest.

"Tommy...all that stuff with Rachel was just...you guys were like 11, I know its going to sound mean to say this but very few people meat their "Soul mate" at 11. And the fact Rachel moved away. To me just shows that the two of you never meant to be together for very long." Kimi looked at him with an expression of worry and confidence. Tommy felt a flood of relief, She had only really said what we had been telling himself over and over but hearing it from someone else set it in stone for him.

"Y...your right, sorry to drop all of that on you...its just been on my mind the past few weeks and all the stuff with Phil kinda brought it to the surface."

"Hey you two, we got the scripts!" Chuckie called as he and Phil descended the stairs to the stage. Lil had run off to help Dil carry all the cups and boxes.

They pulled together two rows of seats and sat down, Pulling over a few loose seats to act as tables for their cups. The whole entrance and stage area was deserted, apart from a few people still hanging around in the donut shop.

"There's like 500 pages here" Phil flicked through the script. "No way do they expect us to read through this in an hour!" He continued.

"Well 45 minutes if you want to be realistic, you guys took your time" Kimi said, checking her watch.

"Let's just have a look at the list of characters and go from there" Chuckie flicked to the back page.

"Okay so the main dude is this guy named...uh...Christopher, okay, nice. Oh Chuckie, check it out. Found the perfect role for you" Dil snickered as he pointed out a role in Chuckie's script.

"Very funny Dil, its practically impossible for me to be the back end of the horse two times in a row."

"Wanna bet?" Dil smiled at him evilly.

"Don't you have webcams to watch?" Chuckie said wearily.

Oh shoot! Your right!" Dil gathered up his things and sprinted down the path shouting "Don't eat all the donuts, I'll be right back!"

After the dust cloud erupted by Dil settled back to the ground, they had barely started reading through the script when a second dust cloud exploded from the entrance as a car scratched to a stop a the entrance, the door was thrown open and Suzi jumped out.

"I...am...never...letting...you...drive...AGAIN!" She gasped, trying to calm herself.

"What are you talking about?" The other door opened and Angelica hopped out. "I did great! We didn't hit anyone did we?"

"Angelica! Suzi" Tommy called out.

"Oh god I was hoping to avoid them for as long as possible, Hello cousin dear," she said exasperatedly as they hauled their things over. She checked her phone.

"No bars? This place really is a hellhole" she rammed the phone back in her pocket.

"What are you guys doing?" Suzi said, peering around the camp.

"We just got given the scripts, auditions in..." Tommy looked at Kimi "30 minutes" she answered after checking her watch.

"Oooh! Gimme gimme!" Angelica grabbed one of the extra scripts, gave the other to Suzi and planted herself down on the stage. He expression of excitement died with each page she turned. "How can it possibly be this bad...its...its like incredible, how bad it is." She flopped back on the stage. "Wheres Dil?" She inquired.

"Checking his webcams for Bigfoot" Chuckie answered back.

'Oh god, please tell me we aren't sharing a campsite with these losers Suzi." Angelica pleaded at her friend.

"Your beds all ready and made" Lil grinned evilly at Angelica.

"Kill me now" she groaned.

After about 25 minutes the other campers trickled back into the main clearing infant of the main hall, Angelica and Suzi got smothered with hugs and kisses from their parents before Chas hopped back up on his chair.

"Alright ya'll. Auditions will begin momentarily, if you wish for an acting role please to the back, behind the stage. If you are looking for a stagehand role or set design role, over by the donut shop, please. And if you don't want to do anything and or don't know what to do just come and talk to me." He clapped his hands and jumped down from the stool. Chuckie and Phil were dragged by Kimi and Lil behind the stage with Angelica, Suzi and a few others, including most of the parents and a few of the random campers. Howard was still banned from the stage and Stu wasn't too keen on the idea of performing either so he, Drew, Howard, Dil and Suzi's mother headed off to the area infant of the donut shop. Leaving Tommy all on his own infant of Chas.

"Hey Tommy, not keen on acting or just not sure what to do?" He inquired, sitting down on the step that leads to the main office and looking at him intently.

"Well I was hoping to film bits and pieces of it from the crowd bu..."

"Tommy, listen to me, ever since the last show I have seen it in you and I see it now. You think your destiny is behind the camera a but I tell you, no. I want you to give a go at acting, I want you to give it a go, not asking you to commit, not forcing you. Just want you to give it a try and see how it goes. Can you do that for me?"

Tommy didn't want to flat out say no to him so he allowed himself to be steered to the back of the stage.

"Now if you need suggestions for roles Tommy I think you should try out a few lines for either Harolds, the shoemaker or maybe if you want to push yourself, trying your luck at Christopher, the star of the production. Don't want to stress you out but its always good to aim high. Never aim for the back end of the horse, alright, always aim to be Christopher! Alright, good luck" Chas gently pushed him through the open door to the dressing room behind the stage. He found Chuckie and the others. They were surprised to see him and even more surprised when he told them he was trying out for Christopher.

"Tommy that's the lead, have you ever acted before?" Lil looked slightly worried at his sudden resolve to try out.

"No, but Chas really wants me to give it a go. So...I couldn't really say no."

Chas's voice echoed from the stage.

"Alright, uhh. Can I have Didi then Chas then Kira and...Lillian out here one by one please"

Tommy couldn't hear much due to the chatter so he couldn't tell what roles were being taken. One by one everyone was called out. Last was Chuckie, he waved goodbye as he left through the curtain. Tommy could hear better now but he for some reason blocked it out. The stress was getting to him, he didn't know why, "everyone else had gone so by now a crowd must have built up, meaning if I end up being terrible, its all in front of people I am stuck with for the next 3 weeks" He looked at the door, half considering running but...

"Tommy! Your turn!" His heart sunk, it was now or never. He took a deep breath. Tried not to scrunch up the script. And walked through the curtain.

The change in light partly blinded him for a moment, he looked out over the stage to see only Chuckie, Phil, Lil, Kimi and Dil, everyone else was either milling around or had returned to their camps. A feeling of relief flowed through him.

"Alright Tommy, your playing Christopher correct?"

"Yep"

"Okay fantastic, you have a scene chosen out?"

"Yep"

"Wonderful, well. Go ahead."

Tommy unraveled the script and looked at the paragraph he had chosen to act out. It suddenly seemed much longer than it had before. But he had to go for it!

"I...I see something? Something dark, something powerful! With a heart of ice and a soul of fire" He took a few steps forward. "This haunting shape that drifts through my dreams now stands before me, emerging from the water like a graceful bird...there is nothing graceful about this creature. Cold to the touch...dark in mind and in my soul. My mind and heart reaches out to it, but like a snake it drains me of my life, of my warmth. Like a snake its teeth are sharp and wishing to steal away my life" he looked up, he had unconsciously made his way to one side of the stage, he was on his knees. A stunned expression was on every face within listening distance.

"Tommy pickles you just landed yourself the lead role..." Chas said still with an expression of both amazement and complete confusion by what he had just witnessed.


	4. Chapter 4 Star Of The Show

Going on 4 chapters now, if you want to keep up to date with this story and so you don't miss a chapter you can follow it and get an email telling you overtime I put up a new chapter. - Charlie

Chapter 4: Star Of The Show

"HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN HIDING THIS FROM ME!" Phil yelled as he shook Tommy.

"Tommy! That was amazing!" Kimi beamed at him.

"Bro! You killed it!" Dil clapped him on the back.

"Well if it was going to be any of us that could pull it off I'm glad it was you dude!" Chuckie grinned at Tommy as Phil finally let go of him.

"Angelica is gonna be sooooooo pissed when she finds out!" Phil laughed as he checked around them as if hoping Angelica was near enough to call her over. But she had returned to the camp to drop off her stuff after being called "Brutally out of tune" by Chas and given a supporting role.

"She was livid! It looked like she was ready to murder anyone close enough to grab" Lil chuckled.

"The last thing I want right now is Angelica on my case, how about we head down to the lake for a few hours? Give her time to cool off." Tommy said, still not fully accepting of the fact he just scored the lead role in Chas's play.

"Well if someone wants to sneak down there and grab our swimmers, we can't all go...well we can but, I just don't want to deal with Angelica right now." Dil looked around the circle.

"I can go" Chuckie looked absolutely terrified by his own act of bravery.

"I'll go as well" Kimi smiled at Chuckie "Don't want you boys going through our things" Chuckie had a hurt expression, that she would say something like that but they laughed it off and headed down the track. When they were out of earshot Phil leaned close to Tommy. "And they were never seen again" he leaned back. "Well I want more donuts!" Phil shouted before rushing into the donut shop, soon followed by Lil and Dil. Tommy was on the doorstep when he noticed the gap he had hidden in last night. He jumped down the porch steps and looked down the small alley. The walls stopped most of the sunlight so it was darker than he expected. The cold feeling washed over him again, Tommy wasn't 100% sure why, but felt an urge to pull out his camera. He lifted it up and switched it on, looking through the viewfinder he saw it. He looked over the camera and all he saw was the empty alley, but through the viewfinder he...he had thought he had seen a dude, with brown hair, around his height. Tommy checked the viewfinder, nothing, he checked down the alley, nothing. He walked up the alley, checking every corner, every nook, every cranny. Nothing. It was empty, "Was it just a smudge?" Tommy thought to himself, but he knew, deep down what he had seen.

He opened the door to the donut shop, trying to stay calm. He cut the line to the cash register, ignoring the angry protests from the other customers. He grabbed Dil by his sleeve and lead him outside, closing the door behind him.

"I just saw Bean on my camera!"

"Really?"

"Yeah, really! It was over by the..."

"I wasn't expecting it to happen so soon"

"WAIT! WHAT! You knew this would happen?

"Well no, not really" Dil lead Tommy away from the donut shop in case he continued yelling.

"I knew there was something off about this place the second we got off the bus" he whispered.

"I could feel it, it was patchy, not like last time but I could feel it, its like some parts of this camp are air conditions, while others are seriously hot.. Not everywhere, but in just some places, I wasn't sure if I was just being crazy or not but...Remember when we found that footage after last time, How all that ghost stuff affected your footage? Well I just wanted to test something "

"Thats why you asked me to bring the camera today?"

"Yeah, I thought, before, we could see Bean, and we could see him on the camera, but the last time we saw him he was on your footage so I thought, I don't know. Maybe ghosts do show up on video? Cause a camera is like an eye right? Just much simpler. So I thought, maybe it was worth giving it a go"

"Well I guess it worked, it was only for a second but I'm sure it was him"

"Okay then, make sure you have your camera on you all the time, I've got my phone camera, we can see if that works as well. It might but whenever you find a cold patch like that one. Try filming it"

"But what are the cold patches?"

"Well last time the whole camp was freezing cold, like those patches. I just think the presence of ghosts or areas that are haunted for some reason get really cold"

"But it warmed up here after all that stuff with Bean was done, why is it like this and why is it all patchy?"

"I don't know dude, your the older bro. I should be asking you the questions. All of this is just speculation, by the way, so...if we get another sighting we tell the other alright? Before it was all theory, now we have some proof but... it's just not enough."

"Okay, that works for me."

They stood in the clearing for a moment, the sun beating down on them, it was heating up again. It was already hotter than yesterday and it was barely 10 in the morning.

"Hey you two! DONUTS!" Phil shouted as he exited the shop with a box and balancing coffees on top. Lil followed behind him.

"You guys wanna head down to the lake and wait for the Finsters?" Lil took her coffee from Phil and sipped it.

"Sure!" Dil said quickly, taking a coffee from Phil as well.

They walked partway to the campsites will they reached the fork in the road Tommy and rested the night before. The walk was steep and rather dangerous. Ropes had been strung from tree to tree along the steeper parts of the track, this didn't help Phil much who nearly toppled down the path multiple times. As they walked along it, it became increasingly apparent from the hostile buzzing sound that a beehive was nearby. They rushed through the last of the walk and emerged onto the shore of the lake. It was massive, stretched for what seemed forever. You could see the glint of tents and people in the distance, there was another camp on the other side of the lake, camp ever woods rival, Camp Woodstock. To there right was a large rock with an old rope swing dangling from a tree at the top, "like a noose, Blowing in the wind". This thought didn't help the uneasy feeling in Tommy's stomach. This place was cold, extremely cold.

"L...L...lets find a sunny spot!" Phil said, teeth chattering. They moved along the shore, Dil shot Tommy a look as Tommy pulled out his camera, switched it on and looked through the view finder, he looked up and down the shore and up the walk, nothing, he even looked at the giant rock...nothing. He looked at Dil and shrugged before following the others along the shore. They sat down, ate their donuts and drank their coffee, the temperature steadily grew and they had to move to a shady spot. Kimi and Chuckie showed up a few minutes later. They found an old camp toilet. From the looks of the inside, it appeared no one had cleaned it since it was first built.

It was great to get into the water, the constant heat was wearing everyone a little thin and a chance to cool off was more than just appealing.

"Ahhhh! Sweet serenity!" Phil sighed as he floated on his back.

"Hey Phil...nice swimmers" Tommy grinned as he swum past.

"Huh? Oh yeah, I got them from...oh you bastard!" He splashed water at Tommy "These don't count! What you expect me to swim in my clothes!" He shouted.

"Have fun cleaning my room, I'll have to think of a suitable name for you, maybe Barbara" Tommy grinned as he back paddled away from Phil.

Kimi attempted to teach Chuckie how to float on his back but quickly gave up because Phil kept swimming under him and brushing his finger along Chuckie's back to freak him out.

"AHHH SOMETHING TOUCHED ME!" He screamed, splashing around in the water before Phil finale emerged and ran away laughing.

The rest of the day was mostly uneventful. Apart from Angelica trying to break all the bones in Tommy's body when she found out he had got the lead role. The day came to a close with little drama, except for the sudden infestation of mosquitos that rampaged through the camp, there constant buzzing made sleeping practically impossible. So after a few hours of attempted sleep, Tommy flicked the light on.

"These bloody bugs!" Phil shouted as he slapped one on his arm. They attempted the plug the holes in the cabin as best they could. The fly screen had so many holes they just dropped a blanket over the door. No one felt like sleeping so they just sat and talked till Phil whipped out a deck of yu-gotta-go cards.

"Robotic sushi chef? How long have you been holding onto that?" Phil was amazed by the card Dil had just thrown down.

"Is it good?" He said, completely uninterested.

"Well...yeah. well...no card is really good. It just depends on what deck the other player has, and I don't have a robotic Santa or a red mirror dragon so I can't beat that" Phil muttered as he dropped his cards down on the table and fell back on his bed.

"I'm tired" he groaned.

They flicked off the lights and got into bed again.

Tommy stood on a small boat, waves splashed against it, a storm was brewing above him, thunder and lightning split the sky, the boat began to sway from side to side, before finally toppling over and he sank deep into the water. it was a deep, dark, blue, the top was a foray, grey mess. Tommy didn't panic or try to swim he just sank, fish swam past him as he floated down. when he reached the bottom he looked around. Trees stretched as far as he could see, animals jumped from branch to branch. Bubbles erupted out of his mouth every time he tried to breathe. A voice echoed through the water, he couldn't make out the words through the water, he followed it, along a winding path that lead him deep into the forest. He broke through branches and think pushes to eventually break through into campground 2b, the water gave it a sinister haze. Tommy wanted to look around more but the voice pulled him along, deeper into the forest, past all the campsites...to pioneers rock. It loomed above him, its eyes staring at him.

"Are you the one talking?" He mouthed through the bubbles.

It shook its head at him, its mouth slid open, revealing a cave. The voice was echoing from within. He recognized the words now.

"Ain't never had no brain or nothing"

Tommy stepped into the cave and tried to see who was speaking, but before he could have a look the mouth of the rock began to slide closed. The words turned to laughter as he ran back, trying to get through the entrance before it seemed shut.

But the water suddenly filled his lungs, his head was spinning, he couldn't move! He couldn't breathe! And the laughing got louder! And louder!

Tommy shot up in bed, banging his head into the side of the top bunk and half falling out of it. The others moved a bit but didn't wake up. He clutched his head in agony as he gasped for air. Tommy was covered in sweat. He opened his eyes and looked around. The room was empty, no water, no laughing. He gasped for air and tried to calm himself. Still clutching his head as the pain throbbed. His breathing slowed and he was able to get back onto of his bed, still with one hand on his forehead he tried to just relax.

"What the hell is happening to me," he thought to himself.

He didn't notice it them, the pain in his head was too much...but...every time he breathed, a cloud of mist bloomed from his mouth. The cabin was uncharacteristically cold that night.

"Tommy? Are you okay?" A familiar voice came to Tommy, he knew who it was even though it was pitch black.

"I'm fine Chuckie"

"No your not!"

As Tommy's eyes got more accustomed to the darkness some of Chuckie's features came into focus, he was kneeling by Tommy's bed, his neon green pajamas and bright red hair stood out more than anything else.

"You look awful"

"Thanks, it was just a nightmare." Tommy tried to wave away his concern but it didn't work.

"You're covered in sweat, your shivering!"

"Yeah cause its fucking freezing in here!"

"Tommy its the hottest night we've had yet!" He put a hand on Tommy's forehead, he tried to slap it away but he felt so weak he could barely move his arm. Phil had woken up from their bickering.

"What's going on?" He mumbled, only seeing the vague outline of Chuckie out of bed. Dil was also rolling over.

"Tommy...your freezing cold! We need to take him to a doctor? Does this campsite have a medical cabin?" Chuckie's voice sounded panicked. Phil switched on his phone light, illuminating the room in a harsh white light. Chuckie could see Tommy now, he was ghostly white, sweat was making his shirt stick to him. He was shivering his whole body was shaking. Phil jumped out of bed as Dil descended his ladder to get a look at Tommy. Phil cursed over and over as he rummaged through draws, looking for the map.

"Hurry up!" Chuckie sounded angry now.

"Its not here!" Phil shouted back.

"I...I think Kimi had it last!" Dil stared at Tommy, completely terrified. Phil threw the cabin door open, letting the blankets they had used to patch it fall to the ground and ran out into the night. Dil switched on his phone light cause Phil had left with his.

Something clicked in Dil's head. He noticed the puffs of mist forming as they breathed, fogging up the windows. He jumped to his feet, and grabbed Tommy's camera from the table near the beds and switched it on.

"Dil what the hell are you doing? This is no time to..." Dil through up a hand to stop Chuckie, he was looking through the camera. A few moments passed, then a loud screech caused him to drop the camera. The sound was coming through its speakers. The sound of screaming mixed with metallic scraping and static.

"Dil! Turn that off!" Chuckie shouted.

"Wait! Wait! Wait!" Dil shouted back!

The screaming died down and was replaced soon after by the words that haunted Tommy's dreams.

"Aint never got no brains or nothing" It was crackly but no doubt it was Bean.

"Dil...what the f..." Chuckie was cut off by Lil, Kimi, Angelica, and Suzi rushing into the cabin, Lil had the map in her hand.

"The medical cabin is a short walk away from the hall, Phil is already on his way to get them ready," She said in a panicked voice.

"Okay...uhh. Dil grab his arm, I need someone to come with the map and a light, I don't think everyone should come" Chuckie said before pulling Tommy off his bed.

"No we all need to go, no one can stay here on their own!" Dil said with the most serious expression on his face he had ever had in his life. No one was in the mood to argue so they just moved out, all igniting the lights on their phones they walked out towards the hall.

I hope you enjoyed that chapter, the story is really starting to get going now, sorry for the slow start but I am really happy with this story so far and I hope you are enjoying it, see you soon for the next chapter! - Charlie


	5. Chapter 5 Dil Spills The Beans

Chapter 5: Dil Spills The Beans

The rocks crunched under their feet as they made their way down the track to the hall, Beams of light from their phones cut through the trees, the small amount of light only made the surrounding darkness more apparent and thicker. The rustle of leaves and fluttering sounds of bats sent shivers down their spines. Chuckie and Dil were supporting Tommy, he was zoning in and out of consciousness so they were more carrying him than supporting him.

"Whats wrong with him?" Angelica broke the silence, turning around to look at Dil and Chuckie.

"I don't know, he was already like this when we woke up" Chuckie said, repositioning Tommy's arm on his shoulder. Chuckie looked at Dil for a second, like he was about to say something. But he looked away again.

A light in the distance broke though the trees along them.

"That must be the medical cabin!" Kimi pointed out the distant light. They picked up speed. Taking a left at the fork in the road and getting closer and closer to the light. They took another turn and found themselves at the threshold of the hall.

"This way!" Phil's voice echoed from down another pathway, he was waving at them. They ran along the path to the medical cabin.

It was only slightly bigger than their own cabin, a green wooden door, wooden paneling and a tin roof. It was in much better condition that the other cabins though. The paint on the door wasn't peeling and it looked moderately clean. The inside on the other hand was completely different to their own cabin, it was completely white, with cabinets all along the walls and fold out benches that could be pulled down from the walls. A small man with a bowed stance, like a cowboy and wispy blonde hair, he worse a pair of thin classes, so thin the wind could snap them in half.

"Bring him in, bring him in" he said in the faintest and sweetest voice you could imagine.

Chuckie and Dil got Tommy onto the bench.

"My name is Harvey" he gave them a sweet smile. "I'm the call doctor for the camps around here, and this young man is?"

"Tommy! And I'm Chuckie, this is Dil, This is Kimi, Angelica, Suzi, Lil and I think you've already met Phil"

"Ah, yes I have, thank you. So Charles, would you mind explaining to me what happened to Tommy here?"

"Well I got woken up by him banging his head on the side of his bunk bed."

"Ahh yes I can see the bruising developing around his forehead"

"He fell out of his bed and thats when I started to get down from my bed, when I got to him he kept saying he was fine but he was shivering and freezing cold"

"Hmmm, shivering you say...strange" Harvey was preparing something on the other bench as he spoke, he moved around and placed a hand on Tommy's forehead.

"Mhm" he murmured to himself.

"Whats wrong with him?" Kimi sounded close to hysterical.

"Not to worry, uh...Kimi wasn't it" he smiled at the group. "This was a case of sickness I ran into quite frequently a few years back, I thought it might have died out but apparently not" He continued to prepare something out of their view.

""I called it the Everwood flu" he placed a wet cloth over Tommy's forehead. "I never completely understood its symptoms or what brought caused people to fall ill but after talking to some patience one thing became clear, it was exertion"

"But we haven't done anything overly fitness related, just swimming" Kimi blurted out.

"Not exertion of the body my dear, of the mind. This place has an effect on many people, it plays with their dreams, and those dreams can drain their minds of energy very quickly" He placed a blanket in a warming chamber, like an oven but at a more controlled temperature.

"But why is he like this?" Dil said, almost angry at the doctors.

"That is the thing I've never been able to understand, I always blamed it on these ghost stories, and the fairytales people told each other, scaring each other. Especially that story of the settlers. It mostly died out some kids found these mines under pioneer rock. More or less killing off the story, no one wants to talk about a mystery that has been solved you see. It probably helped this place warmed up a lot after all that."

Dil's mind was racing, "the Everwood flu, more like ghost sickness. Can contact with ghosts get you sick?" He thought to himself.

"Now, Tommy will stay in my care for the moment, I will make a call to Chas to alert the boy's parents. There is no need to worry. You did a good job bringing him here and he will be fine. Just needs to spend some time in a controlled environment, out of the heat with a bit of medicine and sleep. I would recommend you go back to bed but if you don't feel like sleeping at the moment I completely understand. You are welcome to stay here or wait outside, I would ask that only 1 or 2 of you stay in here at a time as I need to be able to move around freely you see." He smiled at them. Surprisingly Angelica opted to stay with Tommy, well really it wasn't that surprising, she was his cousin after all. Dil wanted to stay as well but from the looks Chuckie was giving him it was obvious he wanted a word outside. Kimi stayed with Tommy instead and the rest of them piled outside to wait out the night. The hum of moquettes filled the air as moths circled the gas lamps dotted around the cabin. It wasn't as comforting as. Roaring fire but it did the job. They felt reasonably safe and the doctors cheerful whistling or sometimes opera singing helped to relieve some of the tension. Phil held Lil's hand which was shaking violently, she looked close to tears from the shock of the situation, walking into someone soaked in sweat, barely conscious and shaking violently was not something any of them had bargained for this trip. Suzi was pacing back and forth, as the oldest of the group who wasn't currently inside the cabin she felt like she should say something, take charge. Tell them to go back to bed or go fetch a parent, do anything really. she felt powerless and this shook her to her core. She had to settle for pacing, she couldn't find it in her heart to demand that they leave their friend and return to bed just to lay in bed, waiting for the minutes to clock by. Dil sat down on an old wooden, two-man seat. Like the ones,you would see at the park. Just 20 years older. Chuckie sat down next to him, there was an awkward silence that was filled by the wildlife surrounding them. They must have been close to the lake cause the hum and croaking frogs filled the air.

"What the hell are you doing?" Chuckie whispered to Dil, barely moving his mouth as he looked into a gas lantern.

"Me?" Dil whispered back.

"Yes! You! you were playing with Tommy's camera when he was...he could have died then and there and you were messing around with his camera!" Chuckie was furious, he could only get part of his anger out through whispering. He wanted to shout but he knew that wasn't appropriate at that moment. Dil didn't know what to say.

"Phil told me over dinner that you two were whispering to each other after we left"

"Can't two brothers talk on their own about personal family stuff?"

"Don't bullshit me Pickles! I've known you and your brother your whole lives, I know when somethings up! What are you really doing with all those cameras?" Chuckie was barely able to keep himself to a whisper. He was practically steaming.

"W...we didn't want to worry anyone"

"You...didn't...want to...well were worried now!"

"I know its ju..."

"What are you doing?!"

"Tommy saw Bean...on his camera"

"W...what?"

"I brought my webcams here because I wanted to see him again if I got the chance, Tommy and me worked out that these cold spots around the camp are areas that Bean is. And if you film those areas you might see him. And my guess is, from what that doctor said. That this sickness is linked to Bean, to the settlers. He said it was more common back before we found those mines, back when there was more of a presence, and...I think Bean attacked Tommy. Like in his dream or when we were in the cabin. Like infected him because of this, we didn't want to tell anyone because before now it could have all been a coincidence, just a smudge on a lens or just another crackpot theory from me. But this is real Chuckie, its happening. Bean is back!"

"But...we solved the mystery of the settlers"

"Yeah but we didn't solve Bean, I feel like there is something left for us to do"

"But why would he attack Tommy, he was our friend"

"well...maybe it wasn't an attack. Maybe...maybe he was trying to show Tommy something, or he was trying to show us something and this is the...wait...what if he was like showing Tommy a vision, like a map."

"Where did you get that from?"

"Well Tommy was asleep right?"

"Yeah"

"Well what was he dreaming about? Something so...so...so big, so scary, so strange that it woke him up so hard he smashed his head into the top bunk. Not many dreams can cause a reaction like that but a vision from a ghost might do something like that. Its all just speculation of course but maybe Bean was trying to tell Tommy something and it like overworked Tommy's mind, giving him this."

"Okay...so what do we do now?"

"Well, we need to ask Tommy what he saw as soon as he wakes up before it fades. And we need to talk to that crazy old lady at the donut shop. She knew about this stuff before. She might now, and...I think we need to tell others whats going on."

"Tell us what?" They hadn't noticed Phil sneaking up on them.

Dil waited till Suzi was at the longest stretch of her pacing to explain to Phil and Lil about what he knew, their reactions were similar to Chuckie's.

"Well, I'm personally all camped out" Phil shrugged after Dil had finished.

"We can't just run away from this" Dil tried to keep his voice down as Suzi looked in their direction.

"Yes we can and we will" Phil's voice held the type of resolve a parent would have over a disobedient child. Dil knew he wasn't going to get through to Phil as he was a year younger than him. He was going to ask Chuckie for help but...

"We aren't leaving Philip" Lil had spoken up.

"W...Lil" Phil sounded amazed that Lil wasn't against leaving.

"Tommy is sick because of whats going on here, we can't just let this stuff keep happening, and what if Tommy doesn't get better? What if he won't get better till we resolve this" She continued in a tone like her mothers.

"But what if one of us gets sick, what if we all get sick" Phil sounded more and more like Howard, he knew he was fighting a losing battle if he didn't have his sister to back him up.

"That's just the risk we will run" no one responded to her. Phil knew he had lost.

"What are you guys talking about?" Suzi was walking up to them with a puzzled expression.

"Uhhhh," Dil, Lil, and Phil all said at the same time.

"we...we were just talking about whats going to happen to the show, Tommy was cast as the lead" Chuckie blurted out.

"The lead?" Suzi was cut off before she could continue asking questions by the hustle and bustle of footsteps down the path, flashlights and gas lanterns broke through the trees as Stu, Didi, Betty, Howard, Chas, and Kira clattered through the small pathway. Chas (not Chuckie's dad) was leading the group and Ellie was hobbling behind them.

Stu and Didi rushed forwards towards the cabin, Stu stopped to check on Dil before following his wife into the cabin. Betty and Howard hugged their children. Gave the others a hug and then moved to the porch to look through the door, the other parents did a similar thing, Kimi moved out of the cabin to give the pickles some room and allow the doctor to explain everything to them. Chuckie took Kimi aside and explained everything to her. After a few minutes of waiting Dil decided now was as good a chance as any to talk to Ellie, she was standing a few meters away from the cabin when he approached her.

"Umm Ellie"

"YES! What is it?" She swung around to look at him, her large eyes looking at him so intently it was almost like she saw him as a threat or a danger.

"I wanted to ask you..." She cut him off before he could finish "about the settlers hmmm? Well I darn near told you everything I know last time"

"I know, but I just wanted to ask you...is there such a thing as ghost sickness?"

"Ghost sickness? GHOST SICKNESS! HAHAHAHAHA! Of course, there's no such thing as ghost sickness.

Dil wasn't sure whether he was relieved or even more concerned by this.

"Well, at least it's not called ghost sickness ya see! I've heard it called many things, the Everwood flu is the most popular. But whats it's really called in the pioneer plague, not much of a plague I guess but it rhymed" She chuckled madly to herself.

"Wait! So you can get sick from contact with ghosts?"

"Well no, it happens when a ghost, spirit, demon, ghoul anything along those lines try to mentally connect with someone through their dreams, the spirit attempts to communicate, or show the dreamer something and it overwhelms them, sending their body into a state of flux, causing the sickness."

"Why do...you call it the pioneer plague though?"

"Isn't it obvious?"

"Yeah I guess so...how do you know so much about this stuff?"

"I've been in this camp for many years, I've seen this stuff many, many times...but I never completely understood it till it happened to me"


	6. Chapter 6 Pioneer Plague

Chapter 6: Pioneer Plague

"Ellie had the pioneer plague?" Lil said in shock. They were all sitting in the boy's cabin, the sun was creeping its way over the horizon. They had been told by the parents they should try and get some sleep. Angelica and Suzi were still down there. Tommy's condition was improving, he had stopped violently shaking but apart from that not much was improving, they had held up on calling an ambulance because Harvey had convinced them that here was the best place for him to be. "Fresh air, the sun, it will all do him much better than in a crowded hospital, and I have experience with this stuff, he is best left in my care" he had reasoned with Didi and Stu and they had decided to let the doctor look after him for the time being as long as his condition continued to improve. They were staying down there for the time being.

"Yeah, she said when she first got employed here back in the early 80's a bunch of kids went off to pioneer rock, she was sent to go find them, when she found them they..."

"Aint never got no brain or nothing!" Phil interrupted.

"Exactly, so it turns out the whole zombie ghost thing was just a way of explaining the pioneer flu. That night when she was asleep a pioneer ghost tried to show her something in her dream and it did the same thing it did to Tommy"

"Wait so Tommy might end up brain dead? Or crazy like Ellie" Kimi blurted out.

"Let me finish! With the kids that ran off they had been missing for nearly a day, they had run out there the night before and slept there, thats when they got the plague, and Ellie was lying in her cabin for a few hours before anyone found her so my guess its the amount of time you go without treatment that causes the brain dead thing, it was affecting those kids minds hour nearly a day and destroyed their minds, its was affecting Ellie for a few hours and it sent her half crazy, it was affecting Tommy for what? It was like 10 minutes from us finding him to getting him to the doctor, we won't know till we talk to him but my guess is the effects will be minimal"

There was a silence while everyone processed Dil's words that in a normal situation they would just dismiss as "Dil stuff" but in this situation, it was all they had to go on.

"Okay soooo, what are we going to do? Considering you are all so keen on hanging around here, what are we going to do so that we all don't get this pioneer plague shit?" Phil said, getting to his feet and pacing around the cabin.

"Calm down Philip," Lil said, in both a commanding and a soothing tone.

"I am calm, I'm fine, perfectly normal. In fact, I would go as far to say I am the only normal one here! listen to yourselves, were listening to DIL! No offense"

"None taken"

"But seriously, Tommy is sick and is getting help, he probably caught a bug or the stress of landing the lead role was too much for him. And if there seriously is a plague or whatever, what can we do about it!" Phil was starting to sound hysterical. He didn't like being the only one who thought a particular way. He was used to atlas someone, be it his sister, Tommy or someone being on the same side as him. Someone to back him up.

"Well last time the curse lifted when we discovered the missing settlers" Kimi murmured to herself.

"Exactly!" Dil said eagerly in an attempt to hurry on the conversation so Phil couldn't fit in an extra complaint.

"So…the first thing we need to do is go back to the mine…" Lil trailed off as she realized what she had said. There was a brief silence as everyone considered this. None of them particularly wanted to return to the mine.

"W…why?" Phil blurted out.

"Well, it was how we solved the last mystery right? By finding the missing settlers. It meant bean was able to move on. Atlas we thought it did. My guess is we missed something in that cave." Kimi declared in a business like tone.

"Even if we did decide to go back there when could we? Chas is going to be whipping us into shape for the show, and now that his golden boy is out of the picture he isn't going to be in the best mood for drop outs and no shows." Phil was fighting to keep his head above water in this argument.

"Well we are half way through this week, script reading will take up the majority of this week but we have a day of free time in-between each day of show stuff for this week and next week with weekends off…" Chuckie interrupted Lil.

"They actually changed the schedule yesterday afternoon, we have show stuff Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday off then Friday back to show stuff then weekend free till the last week which is every day devoted to the show except for the weekend cause Saturday is show day and Sunday is our last day." He said proudly.

"Okay then we organize for a day to go and search for the mine, worst comes to worst we will have to go out after a few show nights. If anyone asks then we are….uhh" Kimi paused, trying to think of what to say next.

"Going for a walk around the lake…..to take our minds off Tommy" Dil suggested.

"That will work, hopefully, he's better soon and we won't be able to use that excuse…" Kimi looked up at the dormant seeling fan to hide the shine that was forming on her eyes. It had been a long night filled with scares and surprises and it was starting to well up in a pool of emotions. She didn't want to return to her cabin in case Angelica and Suzy had arrived back so she instead walked out and sat on the porch, letting her feet dangle a few inches from the ground. Chuckie wasn't 100% sure if he should follow her out or leave her to have a few minutes by herself but from the not so subtle head gestures, Lil was doing it was clear she wanted him to talk to her. He walked outside, closing the door behind him, all the windows were open so it wasn't giving them much privacy but it was more of a metaphorical symbol of separation than anything. He sat down next to her. He was much taller than her still. His feet didn't just touch the ground they were flat on it. They sat there for a few moments. The sun was mostly risen by now, Birds and other wildlife were bustling around now. Unlike the forest the camp was still very much asleep, fires little more than a pile of lukewarm ashes, it had that uneasy chill that came around when you were the only one awake in a large area and you felt kind of out of place to be awake, like that one kid who always woke up an hour before everyone else at sleepovers. An awkward sensation of being too early. Everyone was still tucked up in their sleeping bags or blankets. Unaware of the stressful and emotional night that had just his campsite 2B.

The air had that strange bite to it you only ever get when its been a very cold night but you have the sensation that its about to get extremely hot in a matter of minutes, but for the moment it was still cold. Kimi scooted over and bit closer to Chuckie and leaned against him, closing her eyes, he wrapped his hand around her and gave her a tight squeeze. They sat there for a few minutes.

"It'll be okay" Chuckie said, sounding more hoarse than he had intended.

"I know"

"You alright?"

"no…just tired"

"You should go have a nap"

"no…I….don't…..want….to miss….anything…impo…." Her head slid slightly off Chuckie's head as she fell asleep. Not wanting to wake her he sat there, listening to Phil and Lil argue over yu-gotta-go rules. He sat and let his mind wander for a few hours, as the campgrounds began to stir, sleep faces with ruffled hair emerged from tents and cabins, looking around with a look of disgust and tiredness on their faces, some tried to relight fires, others retreated back inside their shelters to sleep for an extra few minutes. Chuckie thought about Tommy, how he was doing. He thought about the plan, to go looking for the mines, he looked at Kimi and thought to himself. "I'm her older brother, its my job to look after her. Can I really let them go and try to find this mine? It's different now, were not kids anymore. Were nearly all adults, we are responsible for ourselves and I am responsible for her….can I let this happen?" His restless mind got cut off as Kimi began to stir. He looked at her, like really looked. Not the passing or momentary glance most people are satisfied with when looking at others. He looked at her face, the way her black hair contrasted with her light skin. Even though she wasn't biologically related to him, he could see the Finster in her. Not sure how but he could see it. It was beyond description, he couldn't find words to describe it but he felt it. She was his sister by blood. Doesn't matter what ancestry has to say, the same blood ran in their veins and he would be damned it he ever let anything hurt her. Chuckie looked away as she started to fidget, not wanting to seem like he had been watching her sleep. He only realized then that it may have been a tiny bit creepy.

"Why now?" Chas said under his breath as he stepped off his stool, he had been addressing the crowd of campers about Tommy's lapse in health and that they would be holding retry outs for the lead role for anyone interested as back up in case Tommy didn't recover soon.

He kicked the dirt as a few hopefuls ran off to grab their scripts. "Oh, why is it always me! I finally find myself a star and then he gets sick, oh whats the luck!" He murmured to himself, continuing to kick dust into the air.

"Chas sounds happy" Phil sound in a resigned tone as he attempted to fit into the front half of the horse costume.

"Doesn't help that Angelica is still livid at him" Lil chuckled as Phil bounced around, trying and failing to put on the leather look-alike fabric. Chuckie was reading through the script with a highlighter, hoping to highlight at least one line they had through the entire show.

"Well guess what, we only have 1 line in the entire show" he sound, sighing as he put down the script.

"What is it?" Phil asked, looking up from his costume.

'Take a guess" Chuckie looked at him with a pained expression.

"Oh...right..." Phil looked down at his shoes.

"Okay, so whats the plan?" Lil said in a whisper.

"Alright, so we finish today, we can't go knocking off early on the first day of practice, people will get suspicious. We leave as soon as 3 o'clock rolls around. I don't have a role in this play so it means I can be a bit more flexible, we swing past the medical cabin to check on Tommy and then head off to pioneer rock, we will have precisely 2 hours to chart a path through to the rock." Dil murmured as he poured over the hand drawn map he had made with a combination of the camp map and camp hiking map.

"Why only 2 hours?" Kimi intervened.

"Cause the longest walk around here is 1 hour each way, any longer than 2 hours people might get worried, all the parents are on edge at the moment anyway so they would probably send search parties if we are 5 minutes late."Dil concluded as Chas jumped up onto the stage.

"Alright everyone, gather round, I hope most of you have read through the majority of the script by now, if not please get on with that. The stage show we will be performing this year is "The Wayward Campers" an original creation by yours truly. an action, adventure, thriller that will leave the audience shivering with joy. The rolls will be announced publicly now! Starring the play was originally Tommy Pickles but due to unforeseen health issues he has had to pull out for the moment, but the stand-in Tommy as the lead role is! Drum roll, please! Dil Pickles!" A polite amount of clapping followed this announcement, Dil was shocked by this turn of events, he didn't want to be in the play, he hadn't even done the audition.

"Dil will be playing Barney, the hero of the story. Betty, you will be playing Caroline, the tough sheriff. Didi, you get Barbara, the mysterious cook. Miss Suzi, you are Holly, the dashing bride to be. Lillian, you are her bridesmaid and secret agent. Kimi, You are the taxi driver. Kira, Chas. you two are the animal hustlers. And Howard, you are the monster...oh yeah. Chuckie, Phil. You two are the horse. If I didn't call your name your role will be on the bulletin board. Thank you" Chas said, hopping down from the stage. "We begin script read through in 1-hour people!" He shouted as he entered the main cabin.

Everyone turned to Dil….

"I..I can't act," He said to himself, he rushed up the steps to the main office and knocked on the door, a voice from inside told him to come in. The inside was slightly different to what he was expecting, Hardwood floorboards that were a dark crimson color, like molasses. The wall on the back was brick and had a large fireplace that was currently unlit, most likely because of the blistering temperature, the walls were covered in framed photographs, at closer inspection it turned out they were other groups of campers, each year after the show a photo was taken with all the campers in their costumes. Chas must hang them all up here. Some of them were very old, fading in places and peeling. Dil could see the one that they had taken, a few meters aside from a desk, they looked so young. There were 4 desks in rows of 2 in the cabin, one behind the other with a 5th desk to the side with a coffee machine and an assortment of pastries. Chas was sitting at his desk, all the others had reasonable modern computers on them, some had Macs, others Dells. He had a typewriter and a white-out pen. "Hey Dil, come sit down. I can guess what you're here for." Chas jumped up and pulled a chair away from one of the other desk and put it, in front of his, Dil took it, he was still amazed that Chas used a typewriter. "She's a beauty isn't she" he said, rubbing some dust off the corner of the typewriter "it was my fathers, back when he ran this place. I write all my scripts on this"

"Umm, Chas….why did you cast me as the main character? I didn't even do the audition, you could have picked anyone else"

"I could have, yes…let me tell you something Dil. Camp Everwood is not the tourist attraction it once was, we rarely get a full house of campers and when we do they usually leave because the cabins are in disrepair, so they don't pay us the full amount, meaning we can fix up the cabins. Its a vicious cycle. And now we have competition popping up left right and center our shows are the only thing keeping this place going. the reason I chose you Dil is because you were the person I wrote as the main character, I only realized it when you and your group showed up here but my main character was you to at. I chose Tommy because he blew me away but you were always my main choice. I believe you can do this and we can make this the best show Camp Everwood has ever seen!" Chas said, jumping to his feet in excitement. His passion and faith in Dil was nice and all but it didn't change the fact that Dil knew he couldn't pull this off. Chas hurried him to the door and told him to read through his script. Dil felt sick at the prospect of performing infant of a crowd of people, this also threw a spanner in their plan, If Dil was the lead he would have a lot more responsibility on set, meaning he couldn't knock off early or not show up. This show hinged on him.


	7. Chapter 7 The Tunnel's Mouth

Chapter 7: The Tunnel's Mouth

"Alright, campers lets get this show on the road!" Chas shouted from the stage as the main cast of actors gathered around him and formed a rough circle in the center of the stage.

"Okay we are going to start our time together with a few trust exercises cause I read online that such things can be helpful to grow friendships and form trust, trust is very important!" He smiled at them all.

The other groups had separated already, the set designers been taken to a small shed behind the stage with bundles of sheets and paint brushes in their hands. Leading them was Ellie and the appointed team leader of that group. The extras were muddling around the courtyard and the main actors were all gathered on the stage performing trust exercises where one person falls back into the others arms, Phil had already let Lil crash to the wooden floorboards...several times. She was now hurling abusive words at him, regarding his facial orientation, sex drive, and all around distasteful personality. With her voice still ringing in everyone's ears, Chas decided it was best to call off the trust exercises and move on with the script reading. "Okay, I'll start! It was a warm summer evening, the fire popped and sizzled infant of our reluctant here" Chas pointed at Dil "your line" He looked at Dil intently. It was long and painful, the script was full of spelling errors that made reading it an absolute chore and most people went hours without saying a single line, except for Dil. He was constantly talking, so much so he was nearly always out of breath over the 3 hour read through. By the end Phil and Chuckie were both extremely grumpy, they had both had to spend 3 hours standing in a circle and had only gotten to say "Nay" 1 time throughout the read through. "Remember your line Horse" Chas had muttered as they opened their mouths to say the one line they had been rereading for the past hour, completely throwing them off. As far as everyone was concerned the reading was a disaster, between people losing their places, forgetting their lines, the script errors and incredibly long and hard to read speeches from Dil the 3 hours moved at a snail's pace.

"Here's the plan, we kill him in his office and no one has to suffer any more of that shit" Phil said in a hushed tone as they took a break after the reading as the stage crew helped the designer team set up some of the sheets they had painted.

"Phil its just the first reading..." Kimi started before being cut off by Phil.

"Doesn't matter, this thing is a disaster on wheels and I'm not hanging around to see how long before it bursts into flames. Let go to the rock" Phil said jumping off the stage and looking at them.

"Oh so you're all for going to the rock now are you?" Lil said looking at him in with a grumpy expression.

"Anything to get away from here, come on! Whats gonna happen? Chas is gonna get mad cause the guys who say 1 line in the entire dumb play leaves?" They all looked at each other, trying to decide if it was a good idea.

"You guys go" Dil said "I can't leave, I'm the lead but I can cover for you guys. Finding out whats going on is more important than this play but its best if we don't draw attention to all of this."

They all nodded.

"If your sure" Kimi looked at him, concerned that he was making this decision just because he knew Tommy would have made the same.

"I'm sure, now go. Chas will be back soon"

They said their goodbyes and the group left Dil behind, they watched him and the stage disappear behind the coverage of trees as they walked down the track to the campsites then turned to head down to the medical cabin. They were planning on dropping in but they could see that Didi and Stu had taken the break as an opportunity to see him so they continued along the track. They soon reached a large notice board with an old peeling map on it that showed the different selection of walks. Surrounding it was thick bushes and large trees. Moss had grown all over the metal roof of the board.

"You bring the map?" Phil looked at Chuckie.

"Yeah I got it" He pulled it from his pocket, carefully unfolded it (the glue they had chosen to use wasn't the strongest stuff) looking from it to peeling notice board.

"Okay so we go up this walk here" Chuckie traced his finger along one line.

"The blue one?" Lil asked trying to peer around Phil at the board.

"Yeah, then we cross to the green one here" He tapped on the board "by doing that we slice a good 15 minutes off our walk, then if Dil's memory serves us right we should reach a path with a do not cross sign that will take us straight to pioneer rock." Chuckie spun around to look at them. Their expressions were all a mixture of relief to be away from Chas, worry for the sturdiness of this idea and utter, dark, chilling fear of what might happen to them at the rock.

"Well we best get on it" Kimi said, leading the way up the path.

"This is a bad idea" Phil said for the 100th time. They had been walking for a good few minutes and had just crossed through a thick layer of bushes and trees to get to the "green" walk.

"This was your idea to do this now Phillip" Lil said in an exhausted tone.

"Yeah but now that we are nearly here" He paused, looking up at the ominous rock that was beginning to loom above them.

"Don't you think its weird?" Kimi murmured.

"Yes I think its very weird, its a bloody head!" Phil could feel a lump forming in his throat.

"Not that, last time we were here it was like we were walking for hours and the rock never seemed to get any closer you know? It just seemed to be constantly drifting away from us. But now its like its rushing towards us. Like its begging for us to like...come closer" Kimi trailed off.

"Are you trying to freak me out more!?" Phil said in a strangled voice, a mix of holding back fear and the need to throw up.

They soon came to the last path, the do not cross sign was still lying on the ground where Bean had hid it. The years of sun, rain and wind had robbed it of any paint or meaning, it was just a rusty board connected to a rusty chain. They looked down the path, it seemed uncharacteristiclly dark for this time of day, behind them it was sunny and hot...down there it was dark and cold. Like a giant dome encased the entire area with its own climate and time of day.  
"um...who wants to go first?" Phil looked from Chuckie to Lil and to Kimi.

"I'll go" Kimi said, taking a step towards the path before Chuckie flung out an arm.

"NO!" His sudden shouting surprised everyone, even himself. A feeling protectiveness flooded through him. Chuckie didn't know where or why it had happened but he couldn't ignore it.

"I...I'll go first" he said, still with his arm out he took a step over the sign into the new environment, fear and an icy chill ran over him, sucking all the joy and positivity out of him, he wanted to run, we wanted to hide and cry for his mom, not Kira, his mom. It was like he had run into a wall of emotions he didn't want to feel. Everything from fear to hate-filled him to the brim, every memory he would rather have faded away all came back. His knees felt week, he was going to fall, he wanted to fall. He wanted to never take another step towards that rock. But something shone through all of that, all his fear, all his doubt, all his pain. A stronger emotion than all the others combined. It burned white hot inside of him, burning away the desire to run and never look back. His hopeless love for his one and only sister, his best friends in the whole world and his absolute best friend who was lying in a medical cabin because of this. This need to protect his sister, to protect his friends and to help Tommy pushed him through it. He controlled himself, steadied his knees, clenched his fists and took another step, then another, then another. He gritted his teeth against all the fear and hopelessness. After what seemed like hours of slow, painful steps they reached the rock, it had only been a few minutes but the feelings of weariness that they couldn't shake told them otherwise.

The rock was as large and as ghastly as ever, the extra few years of wind and rain had smoothed out some of its roughness but not by much. Its looming presence weighed down on them like piles of bricks.

"H...here it is" Chuckie's teeth chattered as he looked up at the rock.

"We need to look around for a entrance to the...the mine" Lil held back a cough as they began to look around. The forest had been hard at work over the past 4 years, it had taken back much of the area, reducing the once large clearing around the rock to only a few feet in either direction. after deviating slightly from the path and working more behind the rock they found a small entrance that had been created from erosion and water flow. It was on the side of a riverbank, behind a small tree. On the other side of the river was the fallen tree they had climbed through to reach the tunnel before but the river was on white water rapids level at this stage and they would never be able to cross. The hole was their best option.

"It will be a tight squeeze but lets go" Chuckie had completely switched over to guardian mode by now. keeping the group together as much as possible.

"I'll go first, make sure its all okay down there then you guys follow. What time is it?" He said as he started to shimmy down the hole.

Lil checked her watch. "3:35"

"That means we have 3 minutes down there before we need to head back" Kimi sounded rushed now.

Chuckie quickly squirmed his way into the tunnel, pulling his mostly useless phone from his pocket he switched it on. The pink and purple haze that had once existed in the mine was gone. It was dark, dank and dreary. Resembling more of a dirty hole than a mine now. The wood was splintered and old. Kimi followed after Chuckie, then Lil and finally Phil.

"Okay great, now which way do we go?" Lil said, looking behind them down a long path and forwards, down an equally long and mysterious path.

"Maybe we should split up..." Phil suggested before being cut off by Chuckie shouting "No!" Before Phil could even finish. "Thats how we all get lost, we stick together. So we are behind the rock now. That old tree we went through last time is about 25 meters that way. We just head along here and we will be fine" Chuckie said, pointing ahead of them.

"We better run, we're running out of time" Kimi said before they broke into a run down the tunnel. Passing the rock slide that they had climbed down all those years before, past the mostly faded drawing of rabbits Chuckie had used to guide them through the tunnel till they reached a smaller tunnel, like a pathway through a large rock. To their right was an upturned mine cart, rocks spilled out of it.

"It wasn't like that last time we were here...was it?" Lil looked up, hoping one of them would correct her. Chuckie took a deep breath and walked into the smaller passageway.

Droplets of water fell on their heads as they passed through the corridor into a large cave. The one they had found their parents in, but this time it was different. A massive hole had been created in the middle, 2 meters in diameter and around 3 foot deep. Rocks and rubble lay scattered, an assortment of pickaxes and shovels lay around the area, a dead gas lamp sat on a particularly large stone.

"Someone left here in a hurry" Lil said as she looked at the assortment of tools.

"Holy crap! Look at this!" Phil shouted from among the rubble. Everyone gathered around him, he was standing in a clearing of the rubble that seemed to have been the recent miner's rest area.

"It was lying on the ground, I think they dropped it when they left" He held out his discovery.

"Another journal?" Lil snatched the book away from Phil and cracked it open.

"Is that what they were looking for?" Kimi inquired as she looked through more of the rubble in hopes of finding more secrets.

"Maybe but digging this hole through all this rock would have been a lot of work to get an old journal and then leave it behind' Chuckie said, helping Kimi shift a particularly large rock.

"Oh my...holy crap...LOOK AT THIS!" Lil said in a hushed yet excited tone.

They crowded around the small rest area again as Lil produced an old, rusty...thing.

"What is it?" Phil peered at the object.

"Never you mind" said a harsh and cold voice, the tone was alien to them but the voice behind all that cold and bitterness they recognized. They spun around to see someone walking up the passageway, his walking was clumsy and all over the place, like he had forgotten how to walk and was only pushing forwards out of sheer will. His arms flinched and jumped like they were possessed, possessed summed up the sight infant of them rather well.

"What the f..." Phil stammered

"H...how?" Lil covered her mouth with her hand.

"W...what?" Kimi gasped.

"TOMMY!?" Chuckie yelled as Tommy stumbled his way into the cave. He looked awful, sweat pouring down his face, he looked like he had just gotten out of a pool, his clothes stuck to every inch of his body, he was incredible pale and pasty. His eyes darted from side to side, drinking in his surroundings like a frightened animal. His jaw jumped and quivered like he was trying to speak but no sound came from it.

They rushed towards him but stopped where they stood when he suddenly straightened up and looked at him. A smile creeped along his face as he looked at them, for a moment he almost looked normal, until the you saw the eyes, unlike the friendly smile on his face his eyes told another story, of fear, and anger.

"T...Tommy?" Chuckie stuttered.

Tommy's head flicked around to face Chuckie in an unsettling speed, he stared at him, still smiling.

"How did you get out here?...you were lying in your bed 30 minutes ago" Kimi blurted out.

He flicked around to stare at her "was I?" The smile flickered from his face for a second "I don't remember...I just wanted to seeeeeeeee my friendsssssss" His speech slurred a bit. Lil looked away from Tommy for a second to instead look at the small metallic object in her hand.

"Have you f...f...f...f...found something?" He stuttered excitedly, staring directly at Lil. He held out a shaking hand. "C...c...c..can I see it?"

"What the fu...we need to take you back to the medical cabin" Phil turned away from Tommy and looked at Chuckie "What ever is wrong with him, this bloody rock isn't gonna do him much good"

"Won't you let me see what you've found?" He asked, still holding his hand out towards Lil.

"Come on Tommy, we need to hea..." Tommy talked over Chuckie now, his voice now more harsh and cold, just like the way he had spoken earlier.

"Let me see it..." He sounded more demanding now, he must have realized his tone and added "my friend" to the end.

Lil starred at him, she moved to put the small object in her pocket, Tommy tried to run at her but Chuckie, Phil and Kimi stepped infant of her, surprised and shocked by his sudden turn to violence. His face quickly turned from anger back to friendly, the now creepy smile returning in all its splendor

"Come o...o...on guys, let me see" His jaw was starting to jump again and a muscle in his cheek was twitching.

Chuckie took a step forwards.

"Whats wrong with you?"

"nothing...nothing I swear"

"Then why did I have to help carry you down to a medical cabin?"

"M...medical cabin? Hehe I think I would remember that"

"Why do you want to see what Lil has?"

"Cause we...we..we are friends, and friends trust each other...and show each other things"

"You'r not doing much to earn our trust here"

"Haven't I earned that from the...the years of us being friends?"

"You're right, Tommy has earned that trust. Not sure about you though"

Tommy looked at him, perplexed, his smile still unwavering.

"I don't understand" he said, looking straight into Chuckie's eyes and Chuckie stared right back.

"Yeah, you do...Bean...you do"

Everyone paused for a second.

"Ummm Chuckie...just gonna point out that you are TALKING to Tommy who is obviously very sick...not Bean..." Phil folded his arms and stared at Chuckie who was still staring at Tommy.

"Okay then... let's have him prove himself to us" Chuckie's smile nearly mirrored Tommy's now...


	8. Chapter 8 Do You Have The Key, Dude?

Chapter 8: Do You Have The Key, Dude?

"Chuckie we don't have time for any crackpot tests! We need to go" Phil shouted as Chuckie took a step towards Tommy.

"Please! Chuckie just listen to us!" Kimi was close to tears as Chuckie continued towards Tommy.

"He's sick! I'm not gonna let you fucking experiment on him when he's like this!" Phil yelled, stepping forwards and grabbing Chuckie by the shoulder, spinning him around to face the others.

"Let go of me, we need to work this out!" Chuckie was shouting now as well, the tone and atmosphere of the cave had switched from fear and mystery to rage.

"Yeah!? What are you gonna learn from him when he's like this?" Phil moved closer to Chuckie, so close Phil's breath was fogging up Chuckie's glasses.

They continued to yell at each other, tears streamed down Kimi's face as she rushed forwards to try and split them up as it became more physical, Chuckie pushed Phil away from himself and Phil had returned the gesture pushing back.

"Guys..." Lil muttered as the fight escalated, her voice was drowned out by Kimi's screams in protest.

"GUYS!" Lil yelled this time, the fight stopped in mid scuffle, Phil had his fist drawn back with his other hand holding and handful of Chuckie's shirt and Chuckie was holding onto Phil's arm also holding a scrunch of Phil's shirt around the shoulder and one foot drawn back, about to spring forwards into Phil's shin. They both turned their heads to Lil, looking at her with a mixture of shock and frustration.

"What?!" Phil said through gritted teeth as he head drifted back towards Chuckie. It appeared Kimi had worked out the situation as well. She gasped and covered her mouth with her hand.

"What?" Chuckie let go of Phil's shirt, Phil did the same and they stepped back, looking around the room.

"Tommy..." Kimi whispered.

He was gone.

The walk back to the campsite was awkward to say the least. Phil and Chuckie were separated from each other by both Kimi and Lil, Phil looked at the ground with his hand on his cheek, Chuckie had scrapped it on accident when trying to grab onto Phil, it wasn't bleeding bad anymore but as small cuts often do it was extremely painful. It was only 5 so the sun was still up but clouds had rolled in and for the first time since they had arrived at camp Everwood it seemed like a storm was coming, a distant crackle of thunder sent shivers down their spines as the quickly growing harsh wind stripped the trees of weak leaves and dead beaches, sending dust and dirt and small rocks into the air. By the time they reached the peeling sign that meant they were close to their cabin, close to safety the wind had reached a dangerous speed, rain was beginning to fall and paired with the wind ever droplet on their skin stung from the speed it was traveling. The cover of trees helped protect them as they reached the trail that took them to campsite 2B and the main hall but it didn't help much. It was obvious immediately that something was wrong, everyone should have been in their cabins with the lights turned on...or at least some of them but no...all the cabins were dark, some even had their doors left ajar. Same for the tents.

"Guy look...up there" Chuckie pointed up the path to the main hall, it was too steep to see anything apart from the path and trees but lights were flashing through the rain, red and blue lights. They ran up the path.

"Shit, shit, shit! They called the police, we are going to be in so much trouble" Phil squirmed as they ran through the freezing rain, the wind increasing the discomfort and causing their clothes to ripple and stick to them.

"Doesn't matter, we need to tell them about T..." She stopped as they reached the clearing, it appeared everyone was gathered around here, some had taken shelter in the donut shop or on the porch of the main office or even on the stage but many more just stood in the clearing. Some with umbrellas some without. 3 police cars had formed a semi-circle around an ambulance. Police and a few Everwood staff were talking to people and stopping people from getting too close, a few other people were also there. There was 8 of them, anywhere from 30 - 40 years old they were well groomed and looked a lot more professional than anyone at Everwood, it was clear they must be camp leaders from neighbouring camp grounds and Everwoods competition, Chas was sitting on the Bonet of a police car, a police woman with a clip board was angrily talking to him and another camp leader from another camp ground, Chas was holding his nose with both hands and blood was streaming out through his fingers, mixing with the water and spreading all over him, his shirt was mostly stained red and spatters of his was on his hands. The other camp leader's fist was bloody and he was holding it in a way that seemed to say he had broken a few knuckles. It appeared many campers from neighboring campsites had also dropped around as the clearing was packed with more people than camp Everwood had ever had in its entire history. Dil was standing with his parents on the porch of the donut shop, he saw them and gave them a nod.

"I...I guess no one noticed we were gone..." Phil said, looking around, expecting people to shout out their names and come running towards them.

"I guess so...well I guess we were only gone for a bit" Lil was shivering in as the rain pelted down. Chuckie was about to say something when the crowd suddenly went quite, even the rain seemed to lose its luster and the wind it howl. Everyone turned to another track that lead to a different part of the camp, a group of police and ambulance operators and the Everwood doctor all ascended the path, some with flashlights, others holding onto a stretcher. On it lay a form, swaddled in blankets they emerged into the clearing, all with the same expression of despair. Everyone watched as they loaded the stretcher onto the ambulance, the operators drove away and the other police and camp doctor met in a group and discussed what had just happened. Everyone was told to return to their cabins immediately, everyone did so, forming a line as they wandered down the path. Chuckie stopped for a moment to tie his shoe and through the rain that had rediscovered its voice, he accidentally heard snippets of their conversation.

"He was lying about 23 minutes that way, at the base of that rock, you know the one. The one they make up all those urban legends about"  
"what state was he in?"

"He was dead then, only by a few minutes"

"Cause?"

"Not sure? What did you say earlier doctor?"

"Oh yes umm...its hard to say, I only got a few moments to look at him but it resembled a heart attack...no...not a heart attack...more his system as a whole was overwhelmed and gave out. Like if you put to much power into a light bulb it will shatter."

"Come on lad, hurry up" A police officer had noticed Chuckie and was waving him away down the track. He was bringing up the rear now, everyone else was a ways ahead but he needed a chance to think. The rain and wind was only growing more dangerous. The pathway resembled a mudslide now as liters of water poured down it, obvious from the indents many people had slipped only a few moments earlier when descending the path.

"What happened while we were gone?" Kimi spluttered as she took a sip of her tea that was still too hot to drink. They had taken shelter in the boy's cabin, the girls had gotten changed in their own cabin while the boys also changed in theirs, they were now clustered around Dil, socks and shoes drying infant of the gas heater. The wind roared and the rain spat outside, beating relentlessly at the walls of the cabin, tree branches snapped and clattered to the ground around them, a small metal wind chime that Kimi had placed on their porch the day before sounded like it was about to shatter as it clashed and crashed together, giving the whole area an eerie feeling as clouds shrouded the whole campgrounds in an early twilight. Their cabin on the other hand was uncharacteristically snug. An assortment of pillows decorated the ground to act as chairs, the gas heater with its red-hot, glowing metal connects gave them a welcome change from the outside, hair still dripping and noses still running Kimi had made a pot of tea with a gas cooker and a spare tea pot they had found at the top of their closet. They were all wrapped in blankets and staring at Dil as he blowed on his tea in an attempt to cool it down, his eyes drifted up to see them all staring at him, for a moment he was wide-eyed and confused but then relaxed a bit.

"Um well you guys left and our break finished, Chas was super pissed that you guys left, like...really mad. It was like you just spat on his baby kinda pissed. So about 15 minutes into the rehearsal these other campers show up from that Camp Woodstock place across the lake, all stuck up and snooty like. And Chas is suuuuuuper pissed at this stage so he stomps up to them and they talk and apparently one of their campers went missing late last night. Then one of them makes a joke like "we just thought camp Everwood must be involved, their all a bunch of criminals and freaks" and by this stage Chas was a shade of purple I have never seen, he starts yelling and then the leader of this group starts yelling back and it ended with the Woodstock guy punching Chas in the face. By now a crowd had formed and broke up the fight, then the police turned up. They had been searching the area around Woodstock and apparently, that bunch of campers had just come around looking for trouble. A police officer took the two leaders aside as Chas is bleeding all over the place, the police started searching around, Harvey got called up to help in the case of an emergency as. A crowd of other campers from Woodstock showed up and the police headed off to pioneer rock, kinda surprised you missed them"

"We took a few shortcuts, we must have just missed them, maybe they were traveling a different track, but we didn't see a body or anything" Lil sipped her tea gingerly in fear of burning herself.

"Well the police seem to think...well Harvey thinks that the person had only been dead for a few minutes so they could have died after we left and before the police arrived. There was probably a 10-minute space where no one was around the rock for it to have happened" Chuckie told them all about what he had heard from the police.

"okay...yeah. well the rest you mostly know, it started to rain, then you guys showed up" Dil finished.

They sat in silence for a moment...

"So what did you guys find at the rock? Any clues or anything to help solve this mystery or help Tommy? I haven't actually checked in on Tommy yet today" Dil said as his mind drifted off slightly as he rambled on.

The group looked at each other one by one as Dil took another sip of tea, he noticed their strained expressions and puzzled and concerned look spread across his face.

"Well...we found the rock and we...found a tunnel into the mines" Chuckie began.

"And we found that someone had been digging in an area of the mine and had found something" Kimi continued.

"It looked like they had been scared off cause they left this old journal and this...weird thing" Lil said as she handed the journal and metallic object to Dil who studied them with the same concentration that he usually reserved for items related to aliens.

"So then you guys came back here?" He said, looking up from the metal object.

"No...there was...someone else in the cave..." Phil avoided eye contact as he blurted out "Tommy was waiting for us there..."

An awkward silence gripped the room, it seemed like the storm itself had heard them and was beating at the walls even harder.

"You buggin dude?" Dil looked around the group, almost laughing, as he saw their strained and obviously not joking faces the smile drained from his face.

"b...but he's" he spluttered, spilling the hot tea on himself.

"We know, we don't understand it either but he was there" Kimi put a hand on Dil's shoulder to steady him a bit as more tea sloshed from his cup, he didn't even notice the stinging sensation of boiling tea running down his arm and into his lap.

"He was acting all weird like, fidgeting and convulsing..." Phil stopped as Chuckie gave him a livid expression.

"He...he was acting strange" Chuckie said in a calm voice "He was trying to get that metal thing from Lil, he was dead set on getting it, then out of nowhere he was gone" Chuckie looked around but no one seemed to want to add their 2 cents to his description, they fell into silence. Dil sat, looking from the metal object to the journal to the others. Lil took the journal and flipped through it. It was simply a diary of one of the missing settlers, very much like the other journal they had found. No one wished to read it at that time as they knew the fate of the settlers and it would do little to lighten the mood to read about a group of people freezing to death.

"Has anyone gone to see if Tommy is in the medical cabin?" Dil spoke in a quite voice.

"No, but if Harvey hasn't raised the alarm then I guess he must be.

Dil sat for a moment before he finale spoke "this...thing...its not just a lump of metal or anything, its edges have been carefully carved and rounded, I read this article once about keys and the way they function with a lock and I can remember reading a part that said something similar to "keys are simple the operation point, they are the missing piece of the puzzle" and...I don't know but...people were digging in that mine to find something, if it was the clearing I am thinking about, the one with rock floor then that's a lot of effort for just a journal, but it's not a tonne of effort for a key...a key to something." Dil held out the object for them to inspect. "Heres what I think, last time we were here Bean lead us in a particular way to solve the mystery of the missing settlers and I believe he is doing that again but for something else, he had been planning for it to go smoothly but suddenly these dudes show up in his home and start ripping up his floor and taking something WE will need to solve the mystery, so he...I don't know...scares them off or something, he like appears in front of them and goes BOOO! Or something. But now he needs to hurry us up, he tries to show a vision to Tommy and it gets Tommy sick, but it worked out anyway cause then it spurred us into action. We go to the cave but then this dude from another camp starts sniffing around, maybe he was a lookout or a scout for the people who were attempting to steal this. So he...he had already formed a link with Tommy by showing him the dream, maybe he took control of Tommy and followed after you guys, he couldn't risk you guys handing the key over to the other dudes so he comes running up to you and tries to get the key from you. When it doesn't work he runs off to try and scare the scout away by giving him a vision but because the rock is like Beans powerhouse he goes too far with too much power and accidental kills they guy rather than scare him." Dil took a deep breath after finishing his story and leaned back against the wall. Everyone was quiet for a while.

"Well I guess that kinda works, a bit of a stretch in some places and not sure how you made all those conclusions but I guess its all we can run with" Kimi took the key from Dil's hand and looked at it.

"So what it a key for then?" Lil said.

"No idea...whatever it is...it must have a close connection to Bean, to all the ghosts so its metaphorical "chill" footprint must be really big or severe...I must have missed something, I feel like...I've been told or we were close to it..." Dil slid further down the wall.

"There's only one way we can find out" Chuckie got to his feet.

"How?" Phil and Lil said in unison.

"By asking the guy who set it all in motion, lets go ask Tommy"

WHOOP WHOOP! the story is well a truly going now, I am mostly an "atmosphere" writer so i hope you didn't mind the first few chapters being very focused on building a mood, I have tried to pull back on that a tell a story here...well kinda...i like describing storms. anyway if you have any suggestions for how you want to story to go let me know, i have it all written out but i am happy to do some branching storylines if i hear a better idea for the story from someone else. like if i find a suggestion that is better than what i had i will soooo add that in, anyway thanks for reading :) BYE! - Charlie

PS. sorry for the gaps between updates, i am really busy with school atm and the purpose of this was to test my ability at writing an improve but school has been super busy so sorry about that.


	9. Chapter 9 The Lies Of Dreamers

Chapter 9: The Lies of Dreamers

9:30 pm - Medical Cabin

Thunder crackled through the sky, illuminating the room for a split second before fading back to darkness. Their heavy breathing from running through the storm was drowned out by the hammering of rain above them. From that split second of light, it was obvious something was very wrong, Chuckie fumbled for the light. He and Kimi had volunteered to head down to check on Tommy, Dil had wanted to come but it was decided that Bean would most likely still be searching for the key that Lil currently had in her back pocket so they needed to guard it, atlas till they knew what it was going to be used for. Dil and Phil had been reorganizing and replacing the webcams so they could keep a look out for Bean. They had also voted before they left that Phil, Lil and Dil would explain everything to Suzi and Angelica in the other cabin and bring them into the boy's cabin to keep them safe. As far as they were aware Bean had killed some random kid just because he was being a lookout, they had no idea what was next. If their plan with Angelica and Suzi had been a success or not Chuckie and Kimi didn't know, the white lights took a second to ignite, they flickered before illuminating the white room, Harvey lay crumpled against his cabinets, his glasses a few feet away, bottles and packets of pills lay scattered on the ground, they appeared to have fallen from their shelves from his impact below them. He moaned and tried to cover his eyes with his hands. He was clearly dazed, Kimi began to move towards him but stopped in her tracks, Chuckie too as the back door of the medical cabin creaked open, out from the rain walked a thin, pale boy, with bushy brown hair that was much longer than they remembered, it lay in great folds around his shoulders. His face was that of someone who was once very handsome, his chin and jawline was strong and sharp, his nose was perfectly straight and his eyes sparkled, but it appeared that time had consumed some of his splendour, his cheeks were thin, his skin was extremely pale and looked unnaturally tight, it was drawn very thinly around him, like at any moment it might rip. He wore steel capped boots that were decorated in mud and dirt, his blue jeans were slightly torn, not in a fashionable way but more wear and tear kinda way. He wore red and black patterned shirt.

"Hey guys" His voice was thin and slightly horse. He grinned at them.

"H….Hi Bean" Chuckie choked back his fear, leaving his voice croaky.

"Sorry about all this, it wasn't my intention for things to get this outta hand. We don't have much time"

"Were's Tommy" Kimi's voice was firm and demanding, a big change from Chuckie and Beans voices.

"I'm sorry about all this, it wasn't my first plan of action….but we don't have much time you see" Bean looked at them with his sparkling eyes and broken, uncomfortable smile.

"Were's Tommy" Kimi repeated

"You have to understand, this isn't my choice if we only had more time I could explain it to you but…" Kimi interrupted him, "where is he?!"

9:15 PM - Campsite 2B

Kimi and Chuckie had only just disappeared from view along a distant track when Dil clambered onto the roof of their cabin. Phil stood below him, balancing the stack of chairs they had used as a ladder to get Dil up.

"Its wobbling!" Dil shouted as he clutched the roof, the tower of chairs was practically swaying from left to right in the wind.

"Its made out of fucking chairs, of course, its gonna wobble a bit, just move the cameras, I'm getting drenched again!" Phil shouted back through the rain and thunder, now bear hugging the chair stack in hopes to stop it from collapsing.

"You're drenched? I'm gonna drown at this rate!"

"I wonder how Lil's going?" Phil muttered through the clatter of rain, all they could see of the other cabin through the darkness and the rain was the illuminated windows that cast light onto the ground and the porch light that bathed a small corner of the porch and the steps in a low, yellow light. Bugs and insects circled the light, not wishing to stray into the rain they simply circled.

"Are you even holding on?" Dil shouted as the chairs began to shift further to the right.

"Oh! Sorry! Are you done yet?"

"Yep lets get inside!"

Thunder illuminated the sky as Phil and Dil closed the door behind them, Dil sat on the bed, his half drunk tea sat on the table, it was now cold and unappealing, he pulled up his laptop.

"Okay, its all going" He spun the computer around to show Phil, 4 different boxes had appeared on the screen, all showing 4 different angles of the area around their cabin, they were set to max brightness that gave it a grainy slightly distorted appearance but it got the job done.

Another blast of lighting lite up the sky.

Phil and Dil sat, staring at the door trying to stop fear overtake them, it didn't help that the lights kept flickering with each strike of lighting.

"S…should we lock the door?" Phil looked at Dil.

"Well we are dealing with a ghost who can take over someone's dreams and apparently their body if he chooses to, I'm not sure if it's going to help much but if it makes you feel better go for it"

Phil got up and started to pace from end to end of the cabin.

"Where are they? Could they have slipped going down the track?"

"Its unlikely they would both slip and both be unable to get back to us to get help"

"Cut the info god act dude, I don't want the bloody statistics or shit like that! I just want to talk"

"Okay…what do you want to talk about?"

"Ummm….it was more of an expression than an actual desire"

"Do you even know what expression means?

"Shut up!"

Lighting struck again, this time much closer, the lights finally flickered off completely, they stood in the dark room as the rain rattled against the tin roof. The only light emitted from Dil's laptop.

"Oooooooh shit! Ummm what are we gonna do now?" Phil couldn't stop the panic from rising in his voice, causing it to crack. Dil sunk to the bed, pulling the laptop close.

"There should be an LED lamp under the bed over there" Dil said as he looked up from his screen, Phil flung his arm up to his chunder under the bed, his fingers brushed the lamp, he grabbed it and pulled it out. Unlike the gas lamp outside or the light that had originally lit this room, the LED lamp was white, blue and cold, a big departure from the warm, friendly yellow light that had given them a slight hint of comfort. The new lamp cast eerie shadows all across the room.

"This isn't gonna help us much, I'm gonna go out and grab the gas lamp from outside" Phil made for the door, he was reaching for the handle when Dil's intake of breath gave him pause.

"What?" Phil was getting better at hiding his fear but panic was shooting through him like electricity at Dil's sound.

"Don't go outside"

"Why? What do you see?"

"I…can see someone….something watching us from behind that tree" he whispered, spinning the laptop around and guiding Phil's line of site with his finger to the third video box, through the thick rain and dark trees there he was, a pale ghastly face...that they recognized very well. It was only till a flash a lighting illuminated the sky when they completely recognized him.

"Tommy!" Phil shouted .


	10. Chapter 10 In The Depths

Chapter 10: In The Depths

9:00 pm - The Lake

The water crashed and bubbled as the wind pushed its normally still surface into large waves as rain pelted down onto it, causing ripples and splashes. It broke its banks and started to gain ground up the shoreline and runoff from the campsites and tracks brought muddy water sloshing into the once crystal clear lake.

"OUCH!" Tommy winced as his cut and bleeding feet scrapped on another sharp rock, or sharp sticks, he wasn't overly sure at this point. He was drenched from head to toe, He had woken up a lot a small walking track that lead to a dead end, His last memory was of seeing Chuckie's face illuminated by torchlight, thunder crackled above him, he was so used to it by now he didn't even jump. He had been walking so long he had exhausted all the questions in his head, Where am I? Why am I here? What happened to me? He was over asking the same questions over and over in his head without any meaningful answers emerging, "ah! Shit!" He cursed as another sharp stone's tip sliced through a few layers of his skin, not enough to cause any more blood loss but enough to sting for a good few minutes. Tommy had reached a level of uncomfortableness, coldness and sheer annoyance at his situation he wasn't even shivering as the rain pelted his already wet clothes.

Pausing for a moment he looked around, the land was so muddied drenched that it was hard to recognize, and the increase in the size of the lake also made it hard to figure out where he was. "Am I close to the camp or am I on the wrong side?" He thought to himself. He kicked a stone in frustration, this did little to ease his pain.

Frustration began to bubble up inside him, he sank to his knees and looked over the muddy and rough water, he didn't know if he wanted to yell or cry but he let himself slump back and breath for a moment and think, just think.

He took a deep breath after deep breath, he couldn't hear anything outside of the rain and the slosh of the lake so as far as he was aware anything could be sneaking up on him he sat there, a shiver ran up his spine.

Tommy looked out over the water again.

"Why is this...familiar"

He knew he and the others had swum in this general area but he had the unmistakable feeling like he was forgetting something, something so important he was amazed he had forgotten it.

All of a sudden he jumped to his feet. "WATER!" He shouted in amazement like he had never seen it before in his life.

"My dream! I was on a boat on this lake, and...and a storm came! And...and I...fell in..." He shouted at the top of his lungs, only a moment later another realization hit him, "I felt it!" He shouted again! He had remembered the time when he and Dill had walked down here after their conversation and he had felt the strange, ghostly coldness but hadn't been able to see anything on the island or the land. "Cause it was in the water!" He shouted, he started walking into the lake, it became more and more difficult as he went deeper. All of a sudden he stopped as his stomach got hit with a small wave of water. "wait...why am I going in" he thought to himself, "this doesn't seem like a good idea" He sloshed his way back to land and sat down again, "why did I see that in my dream...and why was that presence so strong?" He tapped his knuckles on his head "come on think! Why would I see that...CAUSE IT'S IMPORTANT TO BEAN!" He got up again. Still thinking to himself but now pacing. "Its a 50/50 chance, either its super important to him, or to me...and what else did I see...THE ROCK! Okay so whatever is in there is...is linked to the rock somehow..." He stopped pacing and instead turned to look at the lake again. "If it is important, to Bean...then I don't want him to get it, from that dream...if he was involved with that, with me being here...then I don't really think he should get it...but what is it? Is it a person? Is it Bean?" He continued pacing, getting more and more mossed in his thoughts, he stopped and stared at the lake for what seemed like hours. "Fuck it!" He gritted his teeth and started walking into the lake, got up to waist hight and dove in, he suddenly realised with was going to be much harder than he thought, the water was very cloudy and dark, it was nearly impossible to keep his eyes open, even harder to swim as the water rocked from side to side as the wind pushed it around. He also came to the sudden realization that walking in the freezing cold and pouring rain aimlessly for 3 hours can kinda drain you of energy. The water lapped at his chest, he used his feet, tapping at spots to make sure it was safe to place his feet, the rain and wind had churned everything up, sticks and rocks that were once submerged in mud and dirt were now clear and just begging to be stepped on. Lighting flashed again, this time Tommy could have sworn it had kissed the top of a tree on the other side of the lake, smoke billowed from its top as scorched leaves fluttered to the ground, instantly being robbed of their heat by the thundering rain and wind. The water was now at Tommy's chin, his feet were struggling to touch the bottom now, only by standing on the tips of his toes was he able to remain above the water, he took one last breath and submerged himself into the icy water. His body's shaking subsided slightly, for a moment he floated, the weight finally off his feet he could simply float, no thunder, no hammering rain, just stillness. The water was extremely cloud, the longer he stayed under unpleasant memories of Dil talking about the lockness monster surfaced in his mind. He could barely see a meter infant of him yet he was planning to...what was he planning to do? He hadn't really thought about that, he was kind of acting on instinct at the moment, Tommy surfaced for a moment to fill his lungs. Instinct had gotten him this far, he might as well let it guide him the rest, he swum out towards the centre of the lake, he knew whatever he was looking for was nearby, the water had reached a whole new level of icy, it was so cold he felt like his lungs were shrinking every second he remained in it. He took one last deep golf of air, and dove into its depths, His limbs were already burning from the hours of walking, they screamed in protest as he kicked out with his legs and swiped his arms from his chest out. He did not reemerge for some time. Whatever this thing was it was calling for him, dragging him closer. Even when his lungs began to empty it took every drop of will he had left to come to the surface again, gasping for air then dive again. As he descended the water got colder but clearer, it was evident the clouds of dirt and mud were only towards the surface where the water was still churning, down here it was still. Thoughts of all the monsters and creatures Dil had told him about flooded his mind. Sea leviathans, megalodons and giant crocodiles the size of buses sent fear pulsing through his veins, The air was depleting quickly now as stress took over him, he wanted out of the water NOW! Every cloud of dust, every tap of rain or strike of thunder seemed to spell his gruesome and bloody end. He was about to swim up when he saw it, at first it too scared it out of fear of a great beast that was about to strike him, it was a small wooden crate, the crate had mostly dissolved and fallen to pieces apart from a few bits that seemed more like rock than wood at this point, but something else was there too, the box was surrounded by large...things, they seemed like rocks but were far too pale, and nothing seemed to grow on them, he didn't full recognise the are. He must have drifted a little while when in his state of terror, Tommy could tell this was the place, it was colder here than he had ever thought water could be, it seemed to burn him as he got closer, his lungs were demanding air but he was too afraid to take his eyes off the small box in fear of losing it, he swum down and gingerly moved his hand inside the remains of the box, his hands closed down upon the box, it was most defiantly metal of some kind, from a strange coating on the outside of it that had dissolved many years ago it may have been wrapped in leather or a similar fabric. Tommy didn't want to hang around here long, thoughts of monsters still bounced around in his head, also his lungs were now nearly completely empty. He kicked off and began to swim upwards, the box was heavy and impeded his swimming greatly, as he neared the surface something cause him to look back down from where he had come, what he saw shook him to his very core. No great beast or shark or snake followed him, it was a sudden realisation that caused him so much distress. What he had originally perceived to be nothing more than pale rocks...were bones, all the movement in the water must have disturbed the mud that had once covered them, but these were no normal bones. From there size, shape and position it was clear to see. They must each be far too heavy for simple water to move them, they lay exactly were the great beast they had belonged to had died, from its head to its tale Tommy was not sure how big it would have been, the tale faded off into cloudy darkness, the skull was like the bonnet of a car in shape and size. Large gallons and even longer teeth lay scattered around its head and feet. Fear coursed through him again, He emerged onto the surface and swum as fast as he could to shore, clambering on and getting as far away from the shoreline as he could. He fell to his hands and knees and breathed, gasping for air, he collapsed, too weak to hold himself up he just lay there and breathed.

"Maybe Dil was right about all that stuff," he thought to himself. "I don't think I'm ever gonna swim in anything other than the school pool from now on" He pulled himself to his knees as lighting stuck again, he examined the metal box, it was very crude, no carvings or anything it was just a rusty box. He tried to pry it open but despite its flimsy exterior it wasn't going to budge. Tommy slumped down against the tree, letting the rain wash away the dirty lake water and the fear of terrible sea creatures. After a little while, Tommy got to his feet, his knees shook and he would give anything to just lay back against the tree for a few hours but he knew he needed to get back, everyone would be worried about him. He also wanted some answers himself, like why the hell he had woken up in the middle of nowhere!

The climb up the dirt track was hard, it was basically just a mudslide by this point so he chose to cut through the forest, He was looking around for the blast of light that was the fairy lights that surrounded their cabin but he couldn't find any lights, He came upon a few cabins thats windows were dark, it only occurred to him now but he wasn't too sure what time it was. As far as he was aware it could be 3 in the morning and everyone is asleep, he found campsite 4D and chose to cut through the forest again to reach 2B, all the tracks now resembled mud baths so walking through the forest was the safest option. It wasn't long till he saw the lights of his cabin and the girls cabins shine through the trees, the curtains appeared to be draw and for some reason the light looked a bit different, it was an eerie white rather than the pleasant yellow he was expecting. Tommy leaned against a nearby try and took a breather, he could hear some sort of muttering from inside the boys tent, he realised this probably wasn't the best way to approach the cabin, he didn't know how long he had been missing and him randomly appearing from the forest with a small rusty box wasn't the best idea but there wasn't much he could do. He walked around and came to the front, He jumped the rotting stairs and stood on the balcony, finally protected from the rain. He could feel the warmth already returning to him as he made to knock on the door, but before he could even touch the door it was flung open and what appeared to be the back end of a broomstick flashed forwards, striking him in the forehead, lights popped, everything went blurry, Tommy could feel himself falling backwards, and everything faded to black...again.

Hey hope you are enjoying the story so far, we are getting very close to the end, which is both sad and good cause despite the fact that I am really enjoying the writing process I do have a lot of other work to do that is kinda turning this into a bit of a chore but for the most part it has been fun and I hope you are enjoying it too!

Get excited for the next chapter, its gonna be a banger! - C


	11. Chapter 11 The Path We Share

Chapter 11: The Path We Share

7:00 pm - School Night

Tommy's eyes drifted from the series of images displayed on his phone to his reflection in the mirror. The smell of hairspray and gel was already thick in the bathroom's air, Tommy was getting increasingly frustrated with the mixed results. Phil's text was vague at best and the stock pictures he had attached were just confusing and irritatingly perfect.

"Wow T, what's going on here? Trying to make your hair into a pyramid? I did it...didn't look as good as I hoped it would" Dil smirked as he peered into the bathroom.

"Ugh, I uhh...I wanted to try something new so I borrowed some hair gel and stuff from Phil, but his instructions are shit, to say the least" Tommy tossed his phone on a pile of towels and looked at his reflection.

"Trying something new hmmm..aka dressing to impress...ing, rhyming is hard"

"Shut it"

"I'm not judging, Its good to see you want to improve yourself"

"Dil...cool it"

"Bro!...I feel like our roles for the first time have finally been reversed, I shall give you some of my own wisdom for once, in an attempt to aid my favorite brother..."

"Only brother"

"My favorite and only brother, I will say this, Wash that shit outta your hair. You can dress yourself up all ya want but you ain't gonna impress nobody looking like a unicorn"

Tommy turned and looked at Dil who smirked back at him.

"Thank you for your enriching advice, get out"

"I shan't waste another moment of your time dearest Tommus, I bid theeee a good morrow" Dil winked at Tommy before prancing down the hall to his room, Tommy stuck his head out the door and shouted after him. "I told them it was a bad idea to let you read pride and prejudice!"

Tommy's hair was still slightly damp from his shower as he walked up the street towards Chuckie's place with Dil hot on his heels. despite Dil's "Advice" he had still chosen to dress a bit nicer than normal, and by that, he had chosen to wear mostly clean clothes and a belt. "Are we late?" Dil asked as he pulled on the jumper he had grabbed last minute before leaving the house after their Mom pestered them with how its "gonna be a cold night so dress warm!".

"Nah Phil and Lil had soccer so I was told to show up around 8." Tommy fiddled with his collar a little. They were both dressed relatively nicely. Tommy was covered from head to toe in denim. Blue denim jeans and jacket. He wore a white shirt underneath all the denim, plus some converse jimmies that were beginning to separate from their rubber heel. Dil was sporting trainers, thigh-high sports socks and some swimming trunks. "They might have a pool dude!". He also had a green shirt and a hoodie with planets and stars plastered across every inch of the fabric.

"Do you ever intend to like...grow out of these weird phases?" Tommy asked as he looked at Dil's choice in clothes.

"At what stage does it stop being a phase and just become me?"

Tommy was distracted from making a witty reply by the sound of distant thunder, rumbling like a giant in the distance, small bolts of distant lighting illuminated the dark clouds.

"Funny...I don't remember anything about rain on the news" Tommy murmured to himself.

"Well you too look...nice" Kimi covered her mouth in an attempt to hold back laughing at Dil's more unusual than normal appearance.

"Thank you very much!" Dil smirked, looking back at Tommy, apparently thinking the laughter was directed at Tommy's wet hair than his own appearance.

"Where's Chuckie?" Tommy asked Kimi as she rummaged through her school bag for her phone.

"Umm...oh yeah, he's letting Phil borrow some of his clothes, Phil forgot to pack extra for after training"

"Couldn't he just run back to his place?"

"He messed up his ankle at training, dudes not gonna be running anywhere for the next few weeks"

A strange feeling resided in the house, Tommy couldn't put his finger on it but there was something off, its that feeling you get when sitting between two people who just had an argument. A sense of uncomfortable calm filled the house.

Tommy leaned against the kitchen counter, half listening to what she was saying and half just staring in awe at Kimi. She always looked pretty but she was on a whole other level tonight, he couldn't describe it. She wasn't wearing anything different than normal, her hair looked the same. There was just this spark like she was super excited about something, maybe the party or maybe something else but she just seemed to be happy and positive. It was an infectious and attractive feeling that seemed to spread through him. Like a mountain of adrenalin and coffee was infusing into him. He realized he had been staring at her for a while now, not wishing to creep her out or push his luck he said the first thing that came to mind.

"So umm...how...um...wheres Lil?"

"Getting dressed as well, she was like drenched in mud so she took a shower," Kimi said as she looked up from her bag.

"You alright?" Kimi said, looking strangely serious, It shocked Tommy slightly how intensely she was staring at him. Like how a police officer stares at the man he questions.

"Yeah, why wouldn't I be?

"I don't know, just...Phil mentioned something about you borrowing hair gel from him...I don't know I just never saw you as someone who cared that much about what they looked like."

"I was just trying it out, I washed it out. That's why my...my...my hairs all wet?" The lights seemed to flicker a little.

"How did you get your hair wet?"

"I took a shower, I washed out the..." Tommy stopped, his eyes had drifted to the window, at some stage during their conversation it had begun to rain, not a pitter patter but full-blown buckets of water. The trees outside blew and bent like they were about to snap in half.

"I...my hair got wet...when I...swum in the lake"

"The lake?"

"Yeah...I don't know why I did, I wanted to wash off the gel"

Cracks of thunder lit up the outside, Tommy started to feel really cold. The thunder cracked again, the wind and the rain beat against the house. Tommy looked down. His clothes were drenched. Had it started raining before they reached the house? He couldn't remember.

"Tommy are you okay?"

His eyes were still fixed on the window, but as he watched a strange feeling ran up his spine.

"Tommy?"

The voice sent chills up his spine.

"Tommy? Can you hear me?" It sounded strange, It didn't sound like Kimi at all, it was too sharp, too cold.

"I don't want to talk to you..." Tommy tried his best to not look around but he couldn't stop himself. He slowly turned around, not to see Kimi or anyone…he saw something entirely different. The entire house seemed like it was filled with water, furniture, books, everything was floating in an eerily lit light, a mixture of green a grey, it shimmered and warped but they couldn't be underwater. Tommy could breathe just fine. The room was empty, Kimi was gone. He wasn't sure where Dil had gone after they had walked in. He felt strange like his memories were being violated, he remembered that night, that party. He had tripped and fallen into his pool, ruining his phone. It was like it had been hand-picked from his brain to...to do what? Interrogate him? Scare him? It was defiantly scaring him. Tommy peered up the flight of stairs, a distant light at the end of it was flickering, drawing him closer. The edges of the memory were beginning to bleed, like ink in water, they were stretching and fading and breaking away, twisting around him before fading into oblivion.

"Tommy…." The voice from before whispered. He recognized that voice, from his dreams, from even older memories than this.

"What did you find in the lake?" A voice echoed through the hallway.

"w...why do you want to know" Tommy shouted back, trying to hide his brief stutter by shouting as loudly as he could. It appears as if the questioner was growing tired of the game. The walls and floor began to disintegrate like a sand castle being struck by a wave. The furniture drifted high above to the surface of the lake. Tommy was standing very close to where he had originally found the small box, the bones of a great monster lay nearby but everything else seemed strange. Apart from the bones, the entire area was flat and empty, only the green water was left. It was like an infinite plane.

Tommy looked around, in surprise he saw Chuckie, Phil, Lil, Kimi and Dil all around him, turning left and right. Trying to work out where they were.

"Tommy!" Chuckie and Kimi yelled in unison, running up to him through the dark water, followed by Lil, Phil and Dil. He hugged each of them one by one before turning with a frustrated look to Phil and Dil who looked slightly ashamed.

"Sorry about hitting you" They both murmured.

"Where have you been dude?" Chuckie half laughed and half demanded to know.

"I don't really know, I woke up a few hours ago in the middle of nowhere" Tommy attempted to justify himself.

"Where are we?" Kimi said as he looked around.

"Its the bottom of the Everwood lake, I swam down here a few hours ago." Tommy couldn't hold back a small bit of pride at his achievement.

"But…Tommy, you've been missing for ages, a…and we saw you a little while ago. You were like, possessed." Dil murmured again.

"Yeah, and currently your lying unconscious on our doorstep…and we were standing inside, Lil, you were in the girl's tent with Angelica and Suzi. And you two went off to the medical cabin like an hour ago" Phil pointed at Kimi and Chuckie.

Everything went silent as Tommy attempted to protest what was going on.

"I'm really trying here pickles, none of you understand whats really going on here and all you seem to want to do is stand in my way!" A shrill and cold voice echoed through the water as Bean strolled through the lake towards them. Like before an intense need to run swept over Tommy but he refused to let his fear show.

"B...Bean! you...It was just...I didn't really...You showed me that vision...that was your voice!" Tommy couldn't hold back the fear from his voice.

"Bean…You were the one we saw on the camera, I knew it! Well rather than just talking to us you decide to fucking posses my brother or some shit, kill a random kid and do…whatever this is to us!" Dil gestured angrily at the lake. "You were my friend! And…and this is how you treat us?" Dil stamped his foot angrily.

"It was never meant to work like this, and for that I am sorry, I'm desperate, there is something big going on here. I could only do so much, I needed someone's help, I thought if I showed Tommy just enough you would be able to help me but nothing has worked out how I needed it to!"

The water seemed to shake and shimmer even more as Bean's frustration grew.

"What are you talking about!?" Kimi yelled angrily.

"I am one of the missing settlers, I am one of many. I, like my fellow men and women, perished in that winter, we froze to death one by one. But unlike my friends I for some reason was unable to move on, my soul, my very being was tied to this place for some reason. I found myself at camp everwood, I knew my purpose was here and I needed to find it. It turned out what was tying me here was the mystery of my friends who went missing. I needed to solve it, to see them. To free their memory from the mystery. To be remembered as people, and not fairy tales."

Bean began to pace, sending clouds of sand through the water with each step.

"I knew at once you and your friends would help me on my mission the moment your friend Charles found the accordion, a lost memento of my peoples past. I knew our fates were connected even more when we acquired the journal. We discovered the mine shaft and my missing kin. I was free. I left one last uhh, message on your camera before accepting my departure. Yet here I am again, I was confused, I was shocked. I was...weak. Before I had a body to call my own but this time I was little more than a spirit, like the breeze I found myself in the middle of the woods. I soon discovered why I had returned to camp everwood once again. Upon returning to the mines I discovered a group of teenagers had taken to the floor of the cave with shovels and pickaxes, destroying the place where my kin died. All to find something that had been lost all those years ago. We are tied to this land more than I did believe. Our last memento. I used all the power I could and took on as much of a form as I could and scared away the group. But it was too late, they had unearthed a key. How it slipped through so many cracks between rocks to that level I do not know but that key I did recognize. For some time it used to hang around my neck when I walked along the horse and cart while my Uncle told jokes about conversations he had had with strange men on the roads." Bean stopped for a moment, putting his hand to his chest as if hoping to find the key their again.

"I uhh...I then knew what was tying me to this land...but then this began and I realised the urgency of my situation."

"When what began?" Lil muttered in a low voice.

"This!" Bean gestured to the surface of the water "The rain, the thunder, I could feel it coming, the power and the danger. I knew it wasn't just me who was attached to this land. All my people's souls are attached to this land. This storm, this power. That's them, their pain and anger and sadness, every emotion that made up their being has been hurled into this world and it has created the most powerful storm that will ever strike these lands. This is only the beginning, by morning it will be uprooting trees. By tomorrow evening whole buildings will be torn to shreds. It will just keep growing and growing."

"w...why is this happening?" Chuckie pleaded.

"Because of me, because of my connection. Because of that key and the box that it unlocks. They are my last mementos. The last things holding me to this world and the world of the settlers to this world. By me being present in this world I have formed a bridge for everything else. This force, its not like me. Its not conscious, it can't speak. Its just emotion, it's just a memory of emotion at that. They are all gone. This is just the shadow of my people."

There was a moments pause.

"I did not mean to kill the boy…I…didn't understand my power, I was just trying to scare him away from the grave of my people that he and his friends attempted to destroy." Bean paused again.

"I need your help, if we do not return my memento to me, Camp everwood will be consumed by this storm within a day. please...help me finish this!"

Tommy looked deep into Beans eyes, then looked to each of his friends, silently decided what was the best choice to make.

"We'll do all we can, but I don't have any key, I just have the box"

"Already one step ahead of ya bro" Dil smirked at him. "Also sorry about your head" he continued.

"My head?"

Before the words could even fully form in his mouth the entire scene evaporated like smoke. He clutched his hand to his head, he was lying on the porch of their cabin.

"OW!" Tommy groaned as Phil peered down at him, still holding the wooden pole of the broomstick he had used as a weapon.

"Are you still possessed?" Phil asked in a slightly shrill voice.

"Not currently"

"Maybe I should give him a second whack" Phil murmured, but much to Tommy's joy Dil pushed past Phil, grabbed Tommy's hand and pulled him up into a hug. After a few moments of hugging Dil snickered "Mom's gonna be so pissed at us"


	12. Chapter 12 The Box And The Key

Chapter 12: The Box And The Key

General POV:

"I'm sorry alright! I said that already...But if I'm being totally honest can you really blame me?" Phil sulked on the bottom right bunk as Chuckie used a torn up white shirt as a bandage around Tommy's bleeding forehead.

"But did your first thought have to be to just fucking swing it at me?" Tommy muttered in-between coughing up more vomit and water into a spare bucket. Whatever had happened to him clearly was taking its toll, also swimming in the lake when he was already so weak hadn't been the best idea. His nose was running and his body continued to shake from exposure to the cold for so long, They had set up a few gas lamps around him to try and speed up the warming process.

"Kimi can you find me a safety pin?" Chuckie murmured to his sister who was rummaging through the first aid kit.

"Oh don't worry, they've got a few of those, they didn't think to give us any bandages or even a bloody bandaid but oh boy do we have safety pins!" She sarcastically pulled one from the case and handed it to Chuckie who pinned the fabric in place. Kimi passed him a packet of pain killers before slamming the lid of the underwhelming first aid kit and slid it across the bed.

"It was just the instinctual thing to do!" Phil continued to pout.

"Can it Deville!" Angelica growled at the teen. It had been a little while since Tommy had found his way back to the campsite, Angelica and Suzie had joined them in the main cabin and they had all been discussing what the group had seen.

"But can we even believe Bean? May I point out once again that he's a GHOST!" Lil was getting frustrated by the group's indifference towards the fact.

"Last time he was right, wasn't he? We found the settlers because of him!" Kimi countered Lil's statement.

"Yes, he did, while leading us and our parents into dangerous situation after dangerous situation. What if one of them broke their legs while falling into the mineshaft? Or if one of us had cracked our head open when jumping down that hole through the tree. It would be a completely different story then." Chuckie stated out of nowhere, backing up Lil all the way.

"But what if he's right? This storm is on the verge of being unnatural, there has never been a storm of this caliber in this area of the state, its unheard of. The chances of something of this level naturally happening is like 1 out of a million, if he's right then it could get much worse" Suzie interrupted as she pulled a spare blanket out from under the bed and lay it over Angelica who was shivering, she hadn't brought any warm clothes.

"Yeah the odds are low but it still could happen, and what, us finding some box is going to make it stop? Going in there is a terrible idea, its practically a tornado over towards pioneer rock, it would be literal suicide" Lil couldn't keep the hurt from her voice, she hadn't expected Suzie of all people to argue against her.

"W...w...*cough* we don't need to worry about finding the b...box" Tommy muttered through coughing and chattering teeth. He produced from his sopping wet clothes, a small, rusted box that clearly had once been decorated with leather which had long since rotted away. The room suddenly went silent.

"I found it at the bottom of the lake..." He stated

"You swam to the bottom of the lake?" Phil sounded amazed.

"I can barely remember it, I think, really, Bean swum and got it, I was kinda just a passenger then, I think he worked out that I was too weak to do it so he did it for me" Tommy continued.

"Alright well let's open it" Angelica got to her feet and approached Tommy.

"NO!" Tommy shouted in a cold, harsh, gravelly voice, his eyes lost focus for a moment before he lent over and vomited into the bucket. The lights flickered slightly. He lent back up and whipped his mouth.

"S...sorry...I'm not sure if that was me or not...I don't think he wants us to open it...at least not till we're in the mineshaft..." Tommy half whispered.

"Should I hit him again?" Phil stated, everyone, scowled at him. The room fell silent once again till Dil jumped from the top bunk onto the ground behind Tommy and looked at each of them, Tommy sat between the bunks, Chuckie sitting on the ground with him. Lil and Phil sat opposite each other on the two bottom bunks. Angelica and Suzie sat on stools around the door and Kimi sat on the other top bunk. Dil took a few steps till he was at the back of the cabin, he spread the metal shutters slightly and looked out at the storm. He turned back to them.

"I had a convention I was going to. Alien's uncovered, about an hour out from town. 4 days, I was gonna go with a few guys from school. I didn't want to come back here with you lot cause what was the point? It's just a shitty camp without him, it can't even give us a first aid kit with bandaids. But...a few nights before we all left, my computer went black. I was pissed cause I was sure I had just lost like an hour of homework but then I saw him, I saw Bean, I don't know how exactly. He wasn't on the screen or display or anything, it was like he was a reflection off of it. Like he was in the room but I was alone. I saw his face for a second, I was pretty sure it was just my imagination but I made up my mind, if there was even a chance he was out there I had to give it a try. So I packed all my cameras, packed everything I needed. I came up with the whole Bigfoot thing because how else would I explain why I was suddenly interested in coming. Bean's my friend, I spent days with him when we were here last. Now I don't know about you guys but I don't care what he is, I don't care if what we did last time was dangerous, it was an adventure, an adventure we wanted to have after all. Now he's out there, just trying to be set free and I can't leave a friend like that, now I'm gonna go out there, I'm gonna take the key and the box and I'll work this out, because I know, he'd do the same for me...Now none of you lot need to come, it's fine, I can do this on my own" Dil held out his hand towards Tommy, clearly expecting him to give him the box, there was a pause.

"Tommy, I need the box, and don't give me any big brother crap alright, I know what I'm doing" He continued. Tommy smiled at him, instead of giving him the box he instead gripped onto Dil's hand.

"Pull me up" He grunted, bringing the bucket with him as Dil pulled him to his feet.

"Sorry bro, but as I'm kinda your legal guardian cause Mum and Dad aren't here, I guess I'll just have to come along" Tommy grinned at his brother who looked shocked but happy.

"Well, as I'm older than both of you I'll have to come along and make sure you two don't get into trouble" Chuckie said as he get up too.

Kimi jumped from the top bunk and put her arm over her brother's shoulder and grinned "Well if specs over here is going then I gotta make sure he doesn't go boring your asses off" Chuckie looked like he was about to say something in defense but realized the moment had passed. Phil joined the growing group too, soon followed by Lil who Dil had managed to sway slightly, she also didn't just want to be left alone in the cabin.

"You know, as the only one of you lot that's actually 18 I feel like I have some level of responsibility here but fuck no, I ain't going out there again" Angelica shrugged at the idea, Suzie was about to stand up when Angelica pulled her back to the seat. "Yeah no missy, you think I'm staying here alone when there is literally a ghost hanging around?" Suzie sighed.

"Alright, well let's go save a ghost!" Dil shouted, the group gave a moderately loud hooray, except Tommy who continued to wretch into the quickly filling bucket.

"I mean what can go wrong? We're just running into a hurricane practically, that's safe" Lil smirked as she handed Kimi an extra jumper.

"Tommy was fine out there, and look at him, here's nearly dead" Phil said as he pat Tommy on the back.

"Don't use me as an example" Tommy scowled as he looked up from his bucket. The moment of positivity and laughter was quickly cut short when they heard the sound of knuckles on their front door.

Bang

Bang

Bang

They paused for a moment.

"No way someone came through all that just to check on us..." Dil whispered to himself

"Maybe one of the parents heard about Tommy being back" Suzie attempted to find a less mysterious option.

"From who?" Angelica broke Suzie's optimism in one swing, she got up and peered through the window.

"I can't get a good angle" Angelica muttered. Then despite the protests from the others she approached the door and turned the handle, letting it swing open and reveal the one who knocked.

Hey Ya'll, I'm back!

Soz for the massive gap between chapters, school turned out to be much harder than I was ever expecting but I got some inspiration to continue this story and hopefully wrap it all up for ya'll very very soon!


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